Tentacles of love: My friend, the octopus

Writer: Dr Anina Lee.

Does an octopus have a personality? Perhaps an odd question to ask, as scientists regard personality as a trait of high intelligence and we have all read and heard stories about how intelligent octopuses are. They can open screw top jars. They can escape from the aquarium they are kept in, travel overland to snatch prey from another aquarium and return to their own homes, looking the picture of innocence. So I was delighted to find two documentaries on octopuses interacting with humans that blew my mind.

The Sea Change documentary with Craig Foster, My Octopus Teacher, documents the ‘friendship’ between Craig and an octopus in the Great African Sea Forest off the Cape Peninsula. Every day for a year, Craig visited the octopus in her watery home. After a short while she, in turn, welcomed him by reaching out, inviting physical contact. That is in itself remarkable from an invertebrate cephalopod.

Similar behaviour is recorded in another documentary, the BBC’s The Octopus in my House. Research scientist Prof David Scheel studied an octopus in a large tank in his living room, so that he could observe all its interactions with him and his daughter, Laurel.

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