Secrets of the Octopus takes us inside the world of these “aliens on Earth”

With Earth Day quick approaching as soon as once more, it is time for an additional new documentary from National Geographic and Disney+:  Secrets of the Octopus. It’s the third in what has turn into a sequence, beginning with the outstanding 2021 documentary Secrets of the Whales (narrated by Sigourney Weaver) and 2023’s Secrets of the Elephants (Natalie Portman as narrator). James Cameron served as producer on all three.

Secrets of the Octopus is narrated by Paul Rudd. Per the official synopsis:

Octopuses are like aliens on Earth: three hearts, blue blood and the capacity to squeeze by an area the dimension of their eyeballs. But there may be a lot extra to these extraordinary animals. Intelligent sufficient to make use of instruments or remodel their our bodies to imitate different animals and even talk with totally different species, the secrets and techniques of the octopus are extra extraordinary than we ever imagined.

Each of the three episodes focuses on a selected distinctive characteristic of these fascinating creatures: “Shapeshifters,” “Masterminds,” and “Social Networks.” The animals had been filmed of their pure habitats over 200 days and all that gorgeous footage is accompanied by considerate commentary by featured scientists.  One of these scientists is Dr. Alex Schnell,  a local Australian and self described storytelling who has labored at Macquarie University, the University of Cambridge, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, amongst different establishments. Her analysis focuses on the intelligence of marine animals, notably cuttlefish and octopuses.

Ars caught up with Schnell to be taught extra.

Ars Technica: How did you turn into taken with finding out octopuses?

Alex Schnell: I had this pivotal second after I was younger. I had the luxurious of really rising up on the seashores of Sydney so I’d spend rather a lot of time in the water, in rock swimming pools, all the critters. When I used to be about 5 years outdated, I met my first octopus. It was such a monumental second that opened up a very totally different world for me. That’s the day I made a decision I needed to be a marine biologist.

Ars Technica: What is the focus of your analysis?

Alex Schnell:  I’m a marine biologist that changed into a comparative psychologist—only a fancy phrase for finding out the totally different minds of animals. What I’m actually is how intelligence developed, the place and when. The octopus is the good candidate to reply some of these questions as a result of they diverge from our personal lineage over 550 million years in the past. We share an ancestor that appeared like a flat worm. So if the octopus reveals glimmers of intelligence that we see in ourselves or in animals which might be intently associated to us, it reveals rather a lot about the patterns of evolution and the way it developed all through the animal kingdom.

When you meet an octopus, you actually get the sense that there’s one other being looking at you. A number of years in the past, I labored with a group at London School of Economics to jot down a report reviewing the proof of sentience in animals. Does the animal have the capability to really feel feelings? We discovered actually sturdy proof in octopuses and it ended up altering UK legislation. Now beneath UK legislation, we now have to deal with octopuses ethically and with compassion.

Ars Technica: One behavioral facet the sequence explores is device use by octopuses. I used to be struck by the scene the place a little bit coconut octopus makes use of her clamshell each for shelter and as a protect. I’ve by no means seen that earlier than.

Alex Schnell: Neither had I. Before we traveled to Indonesia on that shoot, I had examine that exact defensive device use by the coconut octopus. This species will typically be seen carrying round two halves of a coconut, like a cellular den or an RV dwelling. And they use it as safety as a result of they dwell in a really barren sandy panorama. So I used to be actually excited to see that conduct unfold.

We obtained greater than we bargained for, as a result of in the clip that you simply talked about, our coconut octopus was being threatened by this indignant mantis shrimp. They pack a very highly effective punch that is been recognized to interrupt by aquarium glass. And right here we now have this defenseless little octopus with no bones or something. In that second we witnessed her have this concept. She walked over to the shell and picked it up and dragged it again to her authentic spot and actually used it like a protect to fend off this indignant mantis shrimp. She had imagined herself a protect.  I noticed her get an thought, she imagined it, and he or she walked over it and used it. I used to be so blown away that I used to be screaming with pleasure underwater.

Ars Technica: At one level in the sequence you have fun having a “dialog” with an octopus. How do octopuses talk?  

Alex Schnell: Octopuses usually talk with modifications to their pores and skin. They can change the colour and the texture of their pores and skin in the blink of a watch, they usually also can change their posture. What we have discovered with one explicit species is that they’ve cross-species communication, so that they collaboratively hunt with some reef fish. Again, I had solely examine this conduct till I had an opportunity to see it in particular person.

I had this type of playful thought whereas I used to be down there with a Day octopus named Scarlet, who was permitting me to observe her on rather a lot of her hunts. Because I used to be so near her, I observed she was lacking little crabs right here and there. Normally her fish searching accomplice will do a head stand to level to the place the missed meals is. I assumed, I ponder what is going on to occur if I simply level at it, not anticipating something. To my astonishment, she responded and swum proper over and appeared the place I had pointed.

So that is what I imply by having a dialog with an octopus. I can not change colour sadly, but it surely’s as if she was responding to my pointing, my “referential signaling,” which is unbelievable as a result of that is type of what we see in people and chimpanzees: this improvement of communication earlier than language develops. Here we now have this octopus responding to a human pointing.

Ars Technica: Scarlet really reached out her little tentacle to you on a number of events; she appeared to acknowledge you and settle for you. 

Alex Schnell: I had had these moments earlier than, the ET second the place you get to fulfill an octopus, and I’ve spoken to different avid divers and individuals who have a love for octopuses which have had comparable experiences. The actually particular factor with this relationship that I had with Scarlet is that we had been capable of develop it over weeks and months. Every time I’d return to her, she would seem to acknowledge me rapidly and let me again into her world.

What continues to blow me away is that Scarlet grew to belief me actually rapidly. She reached out and shook my hand after half-hour of me watching her, and he or she let me swim alongside her as she hunted. This is a creature with no skeleton, no shell, no tooth, no claws to guard itself. And regardless of that excessive vulnerability, she rapidly let her guard down. It’s like she was pushed by curiosity and this want to achieve out and join, even with an alien creature like me.

Ars Technica: I used to be stunned to be taught that octopuses have such brief lifespans. 

Alex Schnell: Rather a lot individuals ask me in the event that they lived longer, would they take over the world? Maybe. It’s life in the quick lane. They are basically born as orphans as a result of they have no dad and mom or siblings to information them. They simply drift off. They’re loners for many of their lives they usually educate themselves. Everything is pushed by this intense curiosity to be taught. I feel that is why rather a lot of individuals have had these unbelievable moments with octopuses as a result of even the worry or the vulnerability that they may really feel is outweighed by a curiosity to work together.

Ars Technica: Do you end up having to be on guard about anthropomorphizing these superb creatures a bit an excessive amount of? 

Alex Schnell: I feel there is a positive steadiness. As a educated comparative psychologist, we’re taught to be actually cautious to not anthropomorphize and attribute human traits onto the animals that we see or that we work with. At the similar time, I feel that we have moved too far right into a scenario that Frans de Waal known as “anthro-denialism.” Traits did not simply sprout up in the human species. They have an evolutionary historical past, and whereas they may not be precisely the similar in different animals, there are similarities. So typically we have to name it what it’s. One of der Waal’s examples was researchers who described chimpanzees kissing as “mouth-to-mouth contact” as a result of they did not wish to anthropomorphize it. Come on guys, they’re kissing.

We do try to see human traits in different animals. We watched cartoons rising up, we had pets round us, so it is actually onerous to not. Our job is as comparative psychologists is to seek out actually sturdy proof for the similarities and the variations between the totally different minds of the animals that we share our planet with.

Ars Technica: What had been some of the highlights for you, filming this documentary sequence? 

Alex Schnell: It was difficult in the sense that when the manufacturing group first approached me, I used to be 38 weeks pregnant. So I went out into the discipline with a five-month-old child. I used to be sleep-deprived, making an attempt to go diving and likewise be on digicam. I had labored on pure historical past movies earlier than, however at all times on the different aspect of the digicam. So it was a steep studying curve.

But it was such a rewarding expertise to have the ability to have the luxurious of time to be out with these animals. I had no venture as a result of I used to be on maternity go away. Sometimes once you’re half of a venture, you will get tunnel imaginative and prescient.  “I’m going to see this explicit conduct and that is what I’m focusing on.” But I might be fully conscious in the second with my time with octopuses and get to see how they work together of their pure surroundings. It opens up this unbelievable secret world that they’ve.  I used to be seeing issues that, sure, I’d examine some of them, however some I’d by no means heard of earlier than. I feel every episode on this sequence reveals secrets and techniques that may take your breath away.

Ars Technica:  What is subsequent for you?

Alex Schnell:  I’m working on a venture known as One World, Many Minds. What this venture strives to do is intensify that, sure, we’re one world, however there are a lot of minds that make up our collective existence. I actually wish to showcase the minds of animals like the octopus or the cuttlefish or an enormous grouper, and present that we now have traits that we will acknowledge, that we will join with. That will assist take away a barrier of otherness, and spotlight our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with animals.

Secrets of the Octopus premieres on Disney+ and Hulu on April 22, 2024.