The Week Junior - USA (2022-02-11)

Animals and the environment

10 The Week Junior • February 11, 2022

A

spectacular and rarely seen blanket

octopus has been spotted off the coast of

Queensland, in Australia. It is believed

to be only the fourth time the

animal has been reported in

the area and one of the few

times anyone has seen it in

the wild anywhere. Marine

wildlife expert and diver

Jacinta Shackleton, who

encountered the rainbow-

like female, said, “Seeing one

in real life is indescribable.”

The blanket octopus is a

remarkable animal that gets its name from

web-like sheets of thin tissue that stretch

between some of its arms. It’s only the females

that develop these beautifully colored “capes,”

which they spread out to make themselves

appear larger and more threatening to

scare away predators. If they feel

especially threatened, they can

remove the cape and use it

as a distraction. They can

also use their cape as a

weapon to strike out at a

possible predator.

Female blanket

octopuses can grow up to six

feet long, but males are much,

much smaller—less than an inch

long. This is one of the biggest size

diff erences known between males and

females in the animal kingdom.

Males (and smaller young females) can

protect themselves with another clever tactic.

They are immune to the stings of dangerous

jellyfi sh, so the octopuses sometimes pull off

the tentacles of jellyfi sh and use them as a

weapon to protect themselves.

Shackleton made the unexpected sighting

while snorkeling in shallow water off Lady Elliot

Island on Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef.

She recalled her “overwhelming sense of joy

and excitement” when she saw the female

blanket octopus. “I’ve truly never seen anything

like it before and don’t think I ever will again,”

she said. The octopuses are rarely spotted by

divers because the animals spend nearly all

their lives swimming far out to sea in the deep

waters of the Atlantic and Pacifi c Oceans.

Scientists using a robot

submarine to explore the world’s

deepest known shipwreck made

a startling squid discovery. Video

from the sub, in the Pacifi c Ocean,

revealed a mysterious bigfi n

squid, the deepest-living squid

known to science. The sighting is

the fi rst record of the animal at a

depth of more than 3.7 miles.

Spo ing a squid

Incredibly rare octopus sighting

Dotted with thousands of sandstone formations called

hoodoos, whose odd shapes are thought to resemble goblins,

Goblin Valley State Park sits at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The

park is also known for off ering spectacular views of night

skies—a lack of artifi cial light in the area allows for the stars

to shine bright and clear. Praying mantises and coyotes can be

seen in the park. Pronghorn, a deer-like animal that can run at

speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, live here too. They are the

fastest land mammal in North America.

PLACE OF THE WEEK

Goblin Valley State Park, Utah

The blanket

octopus

A pronghorn

A bigfi n

squid

Blue spots on the cape

confuse predators.

WOW!
An adult female blanket
octopus weighs 40,
times more than
a male.