Page 76 - World of Animals - Deadly Predators

OCTOPUSES
Highly intelligent colour-changing shapeshifters
that are armed to the hilt
Words Amy Grisdale
liens live among us. Creatures
exist with eight flexible arms
covered in suckers and three
hearts that pump around blue
Ablood. Their skin contorts to
change texture and ink-filled pores flash
different shades at will. They zoom over
the seabed with a jet-propelled siphon,
navigating carefully and remembering the
directions. These beings learn by watching
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others, use tools, and build fortresses
around their lairs. Octopuses are the most
intelligent invertebrates on Earth, and
evidence suggests they might have a sense
of self. Some scientists think that they have
personalities, and there is growing proof that
they could have consciousness like human
beings. If these really are sentient animals,
then we finally have evidence of intelligent
life outside of humans.