Thursday, August 27, 2009

A day in the life of Showy, the Octopus

Showy, the Octopus woke up on a Sunday morning, to flashes of lightning and the sound of thunder.

'ARGH! What a waste, on a Sunday morning!' Showy thought. He continued to snooze in his comforable hiding place. Many minutes later, the rain stopped. With a relatively short life span, Showy is always determined to enjoy his life to the fullest. He stretched his 8 arms and left his territory to start a day of adventure.

As he moved, his excellent eyesight caught sight of several figures spread out sparsely in the intertidal area.

'Could it be them??' Showy wondered. He had heard stories of the many encounters from his fellow friends that a group of like-minded human beings have been visiting his home for some years now, with the aim of researching on the biodiversity in the area, as well as create awareness on its conservation. Showy had long wished to meet them.

Showy ventured cautiously towards the human beings. He was fearful that they could be the irritating fishermen instead.

Suddenly, Showy froze. Standing right in front of him, appearing from nowhere was one of them. She, also froze. After what seems like eternity, she finally fished out a small metallic box and aimed it at Showy.

Being the smartest invertebrate, Showy the Octopus immediately knew what it was, and that the camera was not a harmful tool. He learnt it from Octopus School, which also taught him how to open jars and recognise his tracks.

Determined to impress the human being, Showy wanted to perform his ability to catch its prey using its arms that bears powerful suction cups. Just one bite, the prey would be paralysed, as Showy's saliva is toxic (not known to be harmful to human beings). He thought this performance would be too gory, and decided otherwise. He is also unable to showcase his 3 hearts that pumps blood through each of its 2 gills, and through its body (it would be even gorier!)

An idea came to Showy's mind, and he smiled.

Another skill he learnt was the art of camouflaging. Octopus not only changes their body colour to camouflage/ warn or communicate with other friends, they can do it at the snap of the finger too! This is due to the presence of specialised skin cells called Chromatophores, which changes the colour, opacity and reflectiveness of the skin. They can also use their muscles to change the texture of their mantle to resemble a rock or seaweed.

So heres what Showy did:


Showy beamed upon seeing how impressed the human being is.

After a minute of the camouflaging showmanship, Showy also demostrated its ability to escape. Instead of zooming off using jet impulsion, or releasing a cloud of ink to disorientate the human intended for its easy getaway in the clouded water, he decided to showcase its flexibility to move into any crevices (due to its missing skeleton) by crawling away slowly......

Beaming with pride, Showy hid quietly amongst the algae, as he watched the girl walked away.



以上故事 纯属虚构 如有雷同 纯属巧合

=)

No comments: