OCTOPUS

Octopus are part of a large group of marine creatures, the Cephalopods. Their relatives include squid, cuttlefish and nautilus. The family name comes from Greek and means head-footed, a pretty self-explanatory translation.

Octopus can be found all over the planet and in every sea. There are over 100 species including numerous deep-water and pelagic octopuses. The Pacific Giant Octopus is the largest, growing to about 30 feet across while way down along the family chain are the tiny, venomous blue rings at just a few centimetres.

All octopus are soft-bodied creatures, with that huge head-body and eight long limbs extending from it. These form a circle that encapsulates their mouth. Their limbs are referred to as arms, while the Nautilus has tentacles. All cephalopods have a shell of some sort; it's just not all that obvious in most. In octopus it has reduced itself right down to two rods that are inside the bulbous body.

All octopus are partial to small crabs and shrimp and will scrabble around in shallow, sandy spots, pounce on a prey, then bite a hole through the carapace.

These animals are incredibly entertaining underwater, and have a very high level of intelligence. They can also see in much the same way that we can so will often spend along time watching a diver.

One of the most incredible species -and one of the most dangerous animals in the ocean - is the Blue Ring octopus. This tiny creature uses venom as a knock-out drug. He doesn't inject it into prey but secretes a toxic salvia. This is very useful for when it comes to hunting but has a similar effect on humans. Although deaths are uncommon, the Australian Blue Ring is particularly dangerous and shoud not be handled. Most deaths have occured as unwary people pick them up!

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