A coconut octopus that needed to find a safe place to hide from hungry sharks got help from an unlikely ally. That friend? A spy octopus. A spy octopus is a remotely operated camera that looks like an octopus and helps nature filmmakers record close encounters with undersea wildlife without scaring them off.
In this particular instance, the spy octopus has just what the real octopus needs. The real octopus decides that the robot octopus’ coconut shell will help disguise it from the blacktip sharks who can sniff out octopi with their sensitive sense of smell.
The coconut octopus is so grateful at the end that he shows his thanks to his new friend.
Humans are increasingly aware of the intelligence of octopi. Viewers of the video were entranced with the octopus’ ingenuity and smarts.
“OMG he pets him at the end, I’m crying,” wrote one viewer.
Another viewer wrote, “The fact that the octopus came back and gave a tentacle hug of appreciation for being around with some sort of disguise is quite wholesome.”
“Octopuses are incredibly intelligent – hadn’t it been for the fact they only live up to 5 years and die shortly after having bred only once in their life, not passing any knowledge to their offspring, they would’ve totally taken over the world,” said another.
Another viewer wants to see more of Spy Octopus. “The purpose of these things is to capture close up footage of real animals… but I want to see more of Spy Octopus and his adventures! He’s so cute! He waddles so unlike a normal Octopus and more like a kid in an oversized Halloween costume, it’s hilarious!”
Spy Octopus certainly makes an impression not only on viewers but his new friend. The spy cameras are getting more and more ingenious. One Spy camera saw a “hummingbird” spy drone fly among monarch butterflies. It’s incredible what filmmakers are able to capture!
This clip is from PBS Nature‘s ‘Spy in the Ocean: Deep Thinkers’ which can be viewed on PBS, Amazon Prime and YouTube.
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