Octopus a Night Tidepooling Highlight

During our annual night tidepooling excursion last week, visitors and volunteers saw nudibranchs, a sunflower star, and a huge number of very active kelp crabs. There were also numerous reports of encounters with our resident crowd pleaser, the  red octopus (Octopus rubescens).

One visitor took four short videos of octopus encounters, each showing fascinating behavior such as changing color and texture to blend with surroundings, disappearing into nearly invisible cracks, squirting water, and even catching a small crab! Here are links to the videos on YouTube:

Octopus Entering Its Den

Octopus Coming Out of its Den

Octopus Catching a Crab in a Tide Pool

Octopus Squirting Water

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