The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

by Sy Montgomery

Octopus slime is sort of a cross between drool and snot. But in a nice way. And it’s very useful. It helps to be slippery if you’re squeezing your body in and out of tight places. Slime keeps the octopus moist if it wants to emerge from the water, which some species of octopus do with surprising frequency in the wild. Though the infamous “tree octopus” “discovered” in 1998 by researcher Lyle Zapato was a hoax (perpetrated to prove, which it did, that too many young people believe everything they read on the Internet), wild octopuses who live in tidal areas often haul themselves out on land in order to visit different tide pools for better hunting. They may also do this to escape predators in the water, such as another octopus. I had read that in areas blessed by constant ocean spray, an octopus might be able to survive out of water for thirty minutes or more.