The Octopus: An Alien Mind on Earth (3 Hearts, Blue Blood, Thinking Arms)

In 2016, an octopus named Inky squeezed out of his tank in a New Zealand aquarium, crossed the floor in the dark, and slid down a 50-meter drain pipe into the open sea. To understand how an animal with no bones could plan an escape like that, we look inside one of the strangest minds on our planet. In this episode: three hearts and blue blood, a brain spread across eight arms, skin that changes color in a fraction of a second, octopuses that carry coconut shells as portable homes, octopuses that throw things at each other, octopuses that may dream in color — and a deep-sea mother who guarded her eggs for 53 months. Episode 1 of "Wild Minds" — the astonishing intelligence of animals. CHAPTERS 0:00 Inky's great escape 0:51 Where it happened 1:16 An alien body 2:21 A mind in the arms 3:38 Skin that changes 5:01 Tools and puzzles 6:10 Octopuses that throw 7:24 Do octopuses dream? 8:25 The longest wait 9:42 Wild minds SOURCES Finn, Tregenza & Norman (2009), Current Biology — coconut-carrying octopuses Godfrey-Smith et al. (2022), PLOS ONE — octopuses throwing objects Pophale et al. (2023), Nature — two-stage sleep in octopuses Robison et al. (2014), PLOS ONE — 53-month egg brooding of Graneledone boreopacifica Ramirez & Oakley (2015), J. Exp. Biol. — light-sensing octopus skin National Aquarium of New Zealand / news reports (2016) — Inky IMAGE & VIDEO CREDITS Eggs of Giant Pacific Octopus — Laura James, CC BY 3.0 Giant Pacific Octopus in Washington — John, CC BY 3.0 Hairy octopus — Roser Gari Perez, CC BY 4.0 Mimic octopus — Elias Levy; Rickard Zerpe — CC BY 2.0 Coconut/veined octopus — Rickard Zerpe; Silke Baron; Christian Gloor — CC BY 2.0 The sleeping octopus — Paolo Gamba, CC BY 2.0 Octopus vulgaris photos — Ifremer (Xavier Caisey, Isabelle Cheret), CC BY 4.0 Deep-sea octopus footage — NOAA Ocean Exploration (public domain); Sea Life Munich & lab clips (CC0) — all via Wikimedia Commons Underwater footage: Pexels (Pexels License). Clips not from the places described are labeled on screen. Globe animation, graphics, music and sound design: Tracer Project. Narration uses an AI-generated voice. Script, research and visuals by Tracer Project. #Octopus #Animals #Science #Nature #WildMinds