Snorkeler surprised by camouflaged octopus
Digital Reporter
Monday, February 9, 2015, 2:09 PM - Good thing the octopus in the video above wasn't larger, and the guy with the camera wasn't more bite-sized.
Those incredible camo skills aren't just for show, and the eight-legged denizen in question was probably a little miffed at having its cover blown before its next meal could skitter or ooze into reach of its tentacles.
As it is, the octopus is relatively small, so much so that Jonathan Gordon, who uploaded the video to YouTube, happened on it quite by chance while snorkeling in the Caribbean.
"I dove down to have a look at the shell that you can see just under where the octopus appears, and as I approached the octopus came out of hiding," he writes on his YouTube channel. "I had literally no idea he was there until I was about a metre away."
Many octopuses have at least some control over their pigmentation. The one in the video may have turned that blue-white colour in an effort to scare Gordon off, according to Mental Floss.
For sheer colour, though, we have to look to the cuttlefish family, and the aptly named Pfeffer's flamboyant cuttlefish:
Source: Mental Floss, YouTube
WATCH BELOW: Why don't octopus arms stick together?
