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Common Octopus
Octopus vulgaris
42.653555370382, 18.05696578291
Field Notes
Description:
It is always a special pleasure to meet one of these beauties again... The animal observed peering from a gravel burrow off the Dubrovnik coast is a common octopus, Octopus vulgaris. It shows the classic rounded mantle, large watchful eyes and thick, flexible arms lined with two neat rows of suction cups. Its skin shifts between smooth and rough, light and dark, echoing the pebbles and algae around it so closely that the octopus seems to be made from the seabed itself rather than placed upon it.
Habitat:
This species lives on rocky and mixed bottoms throughout the Adriatic, especially where rubble, shells and crevices offer places to hide. Octopuses build dens under stones or in holes, often lining and blocking the entrance with shells, pebbles and other debris. The individual you saw had arranged a small barricade of shells and fragments around its doorway, a tell-tale sign of an occupied octopus home.
Notes:
The common octopus is one of the most intelligent invertebrates in the sea, able to recognise shapes, solve problems and remember places. It hunts crabs, shellfish and fish by pouncing from its den and pulling prey inside with its arms. Despite its intelligence, it lives a brief life, usually only one to two years, growing rapidly and reproducing once before dying. When it peered out from its burrow and met the diver’s gaze, it was not acting by instinct alone but making a decision — to stay, to hide, or to vanish. For a moment, the reef was not just being watched, but watching back.
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