This is that tank of jellyfish that I thought was a television screen. Boy, am I stupid!
This is a giant octopus. When I first came upon this tank, the octopus was tucked neatly in the back, completely squeezed under a rock and very difficult to see. The only way we were able to find him was because he was entirely ghostly white. A guide who worked there said that when he is in shadows, he doesn't "color" himself--he only adopts a color/decoration when he is out in public. Unlike chameleons, then, it seems that camouflage is deliberate for octopi. What an unbelievable amount of mental effort must go into such a process. The guide said he had been out about 10 minutes earlier, but then "got shy" and went to "rest." She predicted that he would come back out in about 30 minutes. Apparently he power napped as he was out and about in less than a minute.
1 comment:
The jellyfish are gorgeous.
xM
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