In males, the suckers do not extend all the way to the tip of their third right arm, known as the hectocotylized arm. In females, their suckers extend to the tip of all of their arms. The key to determining the sex of a given octopus is to examine the tip of their third right arm. An octopus can also regenerate their arms if they get bitten off by a predator. Unlike mammals, octopuses have decentralized nervous systems that allow their arms to act independently without direct commands from their brain, a point that Montgomery drives home describing how one particular octopus stole a bucket of fish unnoticed while actively interacting with three people simultaneously. She notes that as she watches them, they watch her with just as much fascination. Through many examples, Montgomery shows just how smart these creatures so alien to land dwellers actually are. And all of the octopuses she met there over time become dear friends as she, along with the octopus experts in the inner circle, plunged their arms into freezing water to let each octopus taste them with their suckers and get to know them.Īn octopus is effectively a very dexterous snail without a shell, although it is far more capable and wily than a snail. Others were downright cuddly in a slimy, octopus kind of way. Behind the scenes, she was able to interact directly with these magnificent animals, letting them get to know her as she did them, and when she was with them, she felt time stand still. Through her years working with the folks at the New England Aquarium, she joined an inner circle of staff and volunteers in getting to know a succession of octopuses. It can weigh as much as a man and stretch as long as a car, yet it can pour its baggy, boneless body through an opening the size of an orange. “Here is an animal with venom like a snake, a beak like a parrot, and ink like an old-fashioned pen. She also gives an initial description of the animal thusly: The first thing she teaches readers is that the scientifically correct plural for octopus, contrary to common belief, is not the Latin “octopi.” The word octopus is derived from the Greek, oktṓpous, so the plural is instead “octopuses” despite what may imply.
The book is her personal tribute to all that is the octopus as she educates her readers by dispelling many misconceptions and fears and bringing these extraordinary creatures to life on the page. She was taken with their curious nature, their intelligence, their cunning, and their charisma.
She tells her story of how she was introduced to her first octopus at the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA and was hooked. Naturalist, Sy Montgomery, opens up a fascinating world that is foreign to most of us in her 2015, best-selling memoir, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness.
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