Mimic octopus

Thaumoctopus mimicus

The only in 2001 for the first time documented Thaumoctopus mimicus (English Mimic Octopus, also called " Carnival squid " ) is one of the representatives of the octopus. So far, however, the strange and rare animal has no officially recognized German name.

For the first time aware of the long-armed cephalopod science was through a contribution from Mark D. Norman, Julian Finn and Tom Tregenza. In this article, the researchers report a presumably been scientifically unknown octopus off the coast of Malaysia, who was able to imitate various marine life perfect by form and color change. They documented the contribution by several film footage showing the animal in its metamorphoses into a sea serpent, a flounder, a cuttlefish, stingray, a snail and a lionfish. These changes represented in their opinion, a variable form of mimicry, which would be unique in the animal kingdom. So far, the use of the above- mentioned mimicry was observed only to flee or to deter any adversary. For the first time this form of camouflage was observed in octopuses anglichen by changing the color and shape of a coconut to float freely through the water can. Go to navigation during this process they used minimal parts of their tentacles.

Since this discovery the rare animals were observed more frequently. A second, the Mimic Octopus very similar type is now well known and is referred to as Wunderpus.

Both animals live on the sandy ocean floor off the coast of Malaysia and Indonesia and seek their prey by crawling along the ground, often persisting and shape changing. Little is known about the exact mode of life of the animals.

Some times it was attempted to keep the animals in aquariums, most attempts were unsuccessful because the animal in captivity usually takes no food and correspondingly quickly dies. The Wunderpus obviously came regularly as "Zebra Octopus " camouflaged on the market. Therefore, experts warn against the purchase of animals.