Octopus Disappears Down A Hole Too Small For Its Body

While taking a late-night dip in Ambon, Indonesia, a diver caught quite this fascinating footage of an octopus disappearing after squeezing itself down a small opening in the coral reef.Show more

In the video on the top of the page, you can see the eight-tentacled mollusk shuffling along the ocean floor while the intrigued diver follows him with his camera.

The octopus dashes along, subtly changing its skin pigmentation in accordance with background and examining the surface below it with the suction cups on its arms until it reaches a spot with lots of dents and hollows. A coral reef always comes to the rescue for the octopi in need! The octopus hovers over a tiny hole and begins putting its tentacles down before squeezing its head and whole body down as well.

Octopi do not have any bones, they are exceptionally elastic and can work their bodies in unusual ways. This, together with the ability to alter their skin pigmentation in order mimic the color and texture of their surroundings, is their primary defense mechanism. Therefore, as you can see in the video, octopuses are able to fit into small spaces, squeeze through slight crevices and cracks and hide in spaces that would be unapproachable to most predators and vertebrate animals. Additionally, their bodies lack any air bladders or gas pockets so the creatures can go down extremely deep holes. They use all these ruses to their advantage in order to escape predators. Tentacle by tentacle, the octopus manages to fit into the smaller hole, the larger obviously occupied by some other marine animal, fish – if we judge by the tail peeping out through it. Amazing!