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[water trickling]
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[narrator] Beneath the waves,
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lives a mysterious creature,
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older than the dinosaurs.
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Octopus!
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So incredibly alien.
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Changing color in an instant.
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Shapeshifting into almost anything.
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They are the planet's
true masters of disguise.
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Now we're discovering,
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they are one of the
most intelligent beings
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on the planet.
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Two years immersed in their world,
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reveals they use tools.
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I felt completely shocked at
the level of sophistication
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that I was witnessing.
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[narrator] Think creatively.
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Communicate with other species.
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And maybe even dream.
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I wonder sometimes if the
octopuses are dreaming about me,
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wondering what I am, who I am.
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[narrator] We're just
beginning to understand
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what they have to tell us.
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I have just had a
conversation with an octopus.
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[♪ theme music plays]
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[narrator] The island of Sulawesi.
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3000 miles of lush,
densely forested coastline.
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But beneath the water,
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things look very different.
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A few scattered reefs are the only refuge
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in an underwater desert.
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Any animal going out in
the open, is vulnerable.
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To survive here you need brawn
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or, brains.
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This is a coconut octopus.
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At 18 months old,
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she's already halfway
through her short life.
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Like all octopuses, her mother
died after she was born.
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She's been alone her whole life.
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Every single thing she's
learned about the world,
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she's taught herself,
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and with astonishing speed.
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Most importantly,
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how to hunt.
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As she crushes her crab with
her powerful bird-like beak,
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the succulent scent of her
meal attracts attention.
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She could lose her dinner, or her life!
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There's nowhere to hide.
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But even in her short life,
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she's learned how to make a run for it.
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Clasping the crab in two arms,
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she uses the others like feet.
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It's called stilt walking.
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But she can't run forever,
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it's time to take cover.
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And she's not called a
coconut octopus for nothing.
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[♪ playful music]
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She uses her propulsive siphon,
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like a leaf blower,
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to blast away sand clogging the shell.
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Using an object to solve a problem
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is known by scientists as tool use.
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A sign of great intelligence.
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Just 0.1% of animals
are thought to use tools.
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Making a hideout earns her a
place in this exclusive club.
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[♪ majestic music]
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Scientists believe we've
barely scratched the surface
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of octopus smarts.
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National Geographic explorer
and animal psychologist
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Dr. Alex Schnell
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researches octopus
intelligence in the wild.
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[Dr. Alex Schnell] I really
want to understand what's
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going on inside the octopus mind.
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But we're only just
discovering how they're
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using that brainpower.
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[narrator] Alex suspects these
octopuses are capable of
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even more advanced tool use.
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I cannot wait to see the individual.
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[narrator] Local expert
Benhur Sarinda is here
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to help her research.
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-Let's give it a go.
-Let's let's try it.
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[Dr. Alex Schnell] I wanna
learn if their tool use has
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a type of ability that we
call future planning.
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This is the ability to
carry tools for future use,
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and it's a hallmark of intelligence.
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We've only ever seen it in
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chimpanzees and crows and humans.
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[♪ mysterious music]
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[narrator] A coconut octopus.
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But that's no coconut.
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This small female is using a clamshell,
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because it has a big advantage.
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Portability.
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Even when you've got eight arms,
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two shells are a handful.
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But so worth it.
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[narrator] A large shoal of hungry mullet,
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is a frightening sight
for a fist-sized octopus.
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[♪ anxious music]
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Her clam shells are
the perfect safe house.
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[♪ curious music]
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Different type of shell,
same genius tool use.
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And to Alex's amazement,
she's not done yet.
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When she finds the right spot,
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she starts work on a
more permanent shelter.
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This octopus has a
remarkable understanding
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of how these shapes fit together.
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She manipulates the shells to fit just so.
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It's what Alex has been hoping to see!
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[Dr. Alex Schnell]
Right in front of our eyes.
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She solves the problem of being so exposed
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in this desert-like landscape,
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bringing along her own shelter
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to use the next time
that she might venture out.
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[narrator] With no parental
training and short life spans,
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octopuses learn fast.
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Within months they have to
master problem-solving
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and possibly plan for the future.
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Octopuses don't just make simple plans.
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They can devise complex
and cunning strategies.
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When the tide turns here on
this volcanic archipelago,
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the retreating Atlantic
leaves behind tidal pools.
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And the churning water brings with it,
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a visitor from the deep.
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Cut off in one of the pools
is a hungry island octopus.
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Six months old, his hunting
skills are all self-taught.
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He's about to take the ultimate risk.
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Sally Lightfoot crabs.
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An octopus favorite.
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The turning tides now expose
one of their favorite things
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to eat, fresh algae.
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Mmm, so mouthwatering.
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But to get to it takes a leap of faith.
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[♪ dramatic music]
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The young octopus won't get
as much as a snack by staying
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where he is.
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He needs a plan.
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Muscles in his eyes change
the shape of the lens,
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so he can focus out of water.
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And see the best way to the jumping crabs.
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It's a dangerous journey.
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[narrator] Sure, he's smart,
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but is he willing to bet
his life on a strategy?
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[splashing]
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He's going for it.
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He'll dry out and die in 20 minutes.
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One wrong move and he's truly cooked!
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[♪ suspenseful music]
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[♪ suspenseful music]
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[♪ suspenseful music]
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Finally, he makes it!
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It's time for the next
step of his master plan.
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Positioning rocks to
make the perfect cover.
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[splashing]
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The trap is set.
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[splashing]
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Well-earned brain food.
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The island octopus has thought up,
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tested,
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and executed,
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a killer hunting technique.
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[♪ upbeat music]
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Six months old, entirely self-taught,
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and already an accomplished strategist.
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So how do octopuses come up
with all these smart ideas,
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despite living such short lives?
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To understand that,
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you need to know them as individuals.
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Extreme diver, Krystal Janicki,
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has logged more than 600 hours
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in the freezing waters off
Canada's southern Pacific coast.
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[♪ mysterious music]
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It's a strange and
otherworldly place to explore.
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The cold water is rich
in oxygen and nutrients.
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Turbocharging life, and
pushing it to extremes.
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[♪ dramatic music]
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Lurking in the deep is a colossus.
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[♪ dramatic music]
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[♪ dramatic music]
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[narrator] The giant Pacific octopus
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is the biggest octopus on the planet.
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[♪ dramatic music]
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It can reach up to 30 feet
from arm-tip to arm-tip.
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The length of a school bus.
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By diving with these
giants for so many years,
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Krystal has begun to recognize
and build relationships
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with individual octopuses.
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[Krystal Janicki] When you
lock eyes with an octopus
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it's such a special moment.
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[bubbles]
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I get a real sense that they
want to connect with us,
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that they want to learn from us.
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They have such curious minds.
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Maybe they're not so
different from us after all.
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[narrator] Krystal is a citizen scientist,
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and her face time with octopuses
has led to a realization.
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Every animal has a distinct personality.
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While they're all smart,
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each uses its brain
power in different ways.
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The best way to see it
is to follow one on a hunt.
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To reach her full size, this
giant Pacific octopus needs to
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eat at least 6 meals a day.
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[Krystal Janicki] It's amazing
to think that she started out
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as a hatchling the
size of a grain of rice.
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These octopus have one of
the fastest growth rates
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of any animal.
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[♪ rock music]
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[narrator] Her favorite food,
red rock crab is no easy catch.
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They're agile and fast.
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But they're up against, a mastermind.
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Octopuses are hard-wired for learning.
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[Krystal Janicki] So they have
such incredible brains,
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such incredible knowledge,
and the way they learn
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and grow so fast, blows my mind.
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[narrator] When it comes to
building neurons,
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critical brain connections
for intelligence,
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octopuses have three times
more capacity than humans.
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They're perfectly
primed for new information.
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Every hunt is a chance to learn.
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[Krystal Janicki] Over time, I
started to notice how quickly
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they can problem solve
and adapt on the fly.
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[narrator] Using her
taste-sensitive suckers,
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she feels for crabs hidden in the rocks.
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No luck with that strategy.
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But a genius can change tack, fast.
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She flushes the crabs
out into open terrain.
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[♪ upbeat music]
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Then all of a sudden...
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she's gone.
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[Krystal Janicki] She
disappears within seconds.
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[♪ mysterious music]
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And then I see her, tucked into the rocks.
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I'm not sure if she's
searching for something
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or if she's hiding.
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[narrator] Her plan becomes clear.
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An ambush.
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[♪ dramatic music]
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She releases toxins that
liquify the crab's insides,
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making crab soup.
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Her tactic is creative, clever,
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but more importantly, it's hers.
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[♪ emotional music]
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With no family to nurture or guide them,
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they seem to spend their short lives
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working out how they want to do something.
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The more they experience,
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the more they learn.
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And all beyond human speed.
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One of the biggest questions
is just how octopuses
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retain all this information.
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In the Caribbean, tucked
safely in her den,
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this island octopus is sleeping.
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She's earned it.
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[♪ soft piano music]
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She spends her days hunting
in a complex world,
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full of obstacles, and enemies.
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To help navigate it, scientists
believe that octopuses
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have an especially sharp
memory for geography.
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They might be able to build a
mental map of visual landmarks.
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And remember what they touch and taste.
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Like a multisensory GPS.
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This built-in roadmap points them to food.
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[♪ dramatic music]
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It's also a lifesaver.
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Barracuda are dangerous.
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00:31:33,266 --> 00:31:38,479
Like most octopuses, she fires
ink to create a distraction.
267
00:31:40,106 --> 00:31:44,027
But it's her memory that
provides an escape route.
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A direct path back to her den.
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She might sleep for 4 hours.
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00:32:04,005 --> 00:32:07,091
But her mind may not be entirely offline.
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It could be downloading.
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00:32:15,516 --> 00:32:19,187
[♪ cheerful music]
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00:32:19,270 --> 00:32:20,688
[air hissing]
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Dr. C.E. O'Brien is fascinated
by the secret of octopus sleep.
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In particular, the role sleep plays
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00:32:34,786 --> 00:32:37,538
in octopus learning.
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[Dr. C.E. O'Brien] Over the
course of 24 hours,
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00:32:47,715 --> 00:32:52,553
the octopus spends about 60%
of the time actually sleeping.
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00:32:54,806 --> 00:32:59,769
I was very excited when I
first saw the octopus sleeping,
280
00:32:59,852 --> 00:33:02,939
because it is a behavior that
had only been observed
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00:33:03,022 --> 00:33:05,942
in the lab before.
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00:33:08,236 --> 00:33:12,490
[narrator] To document her sleep,
Dr. O'Brien places a small camera
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at the mouth of her den.
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[Dr. C.E. O'Brien] I can
tell she's asleep um,
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00:33:17,203 --> 00:33:20,206
by the dilation of her pupils.
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00:33:21,416 --> 00:33:24,168
It becomes a very narrow slit.
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00:33:28,131 --> 00:33:31,884
So for about 40 minutes,
she'll be a very pale color,
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00:33:31,968 --> 00:33:33,886
very quiet, very little movement,
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00:33:33,970 --> 00:33:36,097
you'll just see her breathing.
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00:33:41,728 --> 00:33:44,188
Then after about 40 minutes,
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00:33:44,897 --> 00:33:47,108
she'll show something like REM sleep.
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00:33:49,986 --> 00:33:53,239
So very suddenly
there'll be changes in color.
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00:34:00,121 --> 00:34:02,457
[♪ magical music]
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00:34:02,540 --> 00:34:07,003
You'll see movement of her
mantle, her arms, her suckers.
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00:34:10,131 --> 00:34:14,844
It really seems like when
she's in that active sleep
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00:34:14,927 --> 00:34:17,180
that she is experiencing dreams.
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00:34:20,308 --> 00:34:24,020
It reminds me of a dog when
it's sleeping and it's moving
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00:34:24,103 --> 00:34:26,939
its paws and its whiskers um,
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00:34:27,023 --> 00:34:30,068
probably dreaming of chasing
a squirrel or a rabbit.
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00:34:32,445 --> 00:34:36,824
[narrator] This similarity to
a dog may be no coincidence.
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[Dr. C.E. O'Brien] In mammals and birds,
sleep plays an important role
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00:34:40,953 --> 00:34:43,039
in memory consolidation and learning,
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00:34:43,122 --> 00:34:47,043
so it's very likely that octopuses sleep
for the same reasons.
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00:34:49,045 --> 00:34:52,006
So it's possible that she's
consolidating the memories of
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00:34:52,090 --> 00:34:55,134
the new path that she
took while she was foraging.
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00:34:56,594 --> 00:35:00,014
Remembering where
a particular tasty crab was,
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00:35:00,098 --> 00:35:03,935
or maybe a particularly nasty eel was.
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00:35:04,519 --> 00:35:07,980
I wonder sometimes if the
octopuses are dreaming about me.
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00:35:08,064 --> 00:35:11,859
Um, maybe she's dreaming about
my face sticking in her den,
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00:35:11,943 --> 00:35:16,697
wondering what I am,
who I am, why I'm there.
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00:35:21,744 --> 00:35:25,665
[narrator] If octopuses really
do dream, it could explain
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00:35:25,748 --> 00:35:28,251
how they're able to retain
so much knowledge,
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00:35:28,334 --> 00:35:31,212
in such short lives.
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00:35:35,216 --> 00:35:37,718
[bird cawing]
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00:35:37,802 --> 00:35:40,263
But what if everything they
know about the world
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00:35:40,346 --> 00:35:43,349
isn't just remembered,
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00:35:44,016 --> 00:35:48,229
but used as the raw material
for brand new ideas?
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00:35:52,525 --> 00:35:54,861
[narrator] Dr. Alex Schnell
and Benhur Sarinda
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00:35:54,944 --> 00:35:59,031
have returned to the den
of the coconut octopus.
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00:36:03,703 --> 00:36:07,415
The octopus has already
shown Alex tool use,
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00:36:07,498 --> 00:36:10,084
using a shell to hide from predators,
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00:36:10,168 --> 00:36:13,129
but Alex hopes that if she's patient,
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00:36:14,213 --> 00:36:18,593
she may get to see something
even more astonishing.
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00:36:20,052 --> 00:36:22,889
Creativity.
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00:36:23,723 --> 00:36:24,932
[Dr. Alex Schnell]
When we're looking for glimmers
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00:36:25,016 --> 00:36:27,768
of intelligence,
we traditionally focus on animals
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00:36:27,852 --> 00:36:29,687
that are more closely related to us,
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00:36:29,770 --> 00:36:32,398
but to find it in an octopus,
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00:36:32,481 --> 00:36:35,234
that's so distantly related from humans,
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00:36:35,318 --> 00:36:37,778
that would completely reframe
the way we think about
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00:36:37,862 --> 00:36:40,072
intelligence in the animal kingdom.
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00:36:42,325 --> 00:36:44,327
[narrator] Her clam shell
hideout is safely tucked
333
00:36:44,410 --> 00:36:47,121
into the sand.
334
00:36:50,291 --> 00:36:51,959
It's the perfect location.
335
00:36:53,669 --> 00:36:57,298
But you can't always pick your neighbors.
336
00:37:00,927 --> 00:37:05,723
A mantis shrimp has moved in next door.
337
00:37:09,685 --> 00:37:13,105
The octopus would gladly
eat her tiny new neighbor.
338
00:37:21,197 --> 00:37:24,784
But this standoff isn't
as one-sided as it looks.
339
00:37:28,246 --> 00:37:32,625
The shrimp may be small,
but he's highly aggressive,
340
00:37:33,668 --> 00:37:37,713
highly territorial,
341
00:37:38,673 --> 00:37:42,551
and armed with the fastest
punch in the animal kingdom.
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00:37:47,056 --> 00:37:50,393
See that leg with the white club-like tip
343
00:37:50,476 --> 00:37:52,770
folded down in front?
344
00:37:52,853 --> 00:37:56,607
That's a defiant fighting pose
known as the meral spread.
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00:37:58,150 --> 00:38:00,486
See that punch?
346
00:38:01,070 --> 00:38:05,074
Well, you can't,
because it's as fast as a bullet.
347
00:38:07,660 --> 00:38:11,455
And 50 times faster
than the blink of an eye.
348
00:38:13,958 --> 00:38:17,378
A mantis shrimp's high-powered
punch can kill animals
349
00:38:17,461 --> 00:38:20,631
much larger than themselves.
350
00:38:28,723 --> 00:38:33,728
It's brains versus prawn.
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00:38:38,107 --> 00:38:39,567
Time to see what
352
00:38:39,650 --> 00:38:42,945
being one of the fastest
learners on the planet
353
00:38:43,029 --> 00:38:46,198
gets you when your
back's against the wall.
354
00:38:50,453 --> 00:38:53,372
The octopus blasts the shrimp with water.
355
00:39:01,672 --> 00:39:05,176
But this tiny terror is just too fast.
356
00:39:06,385 --> 00:39:12,892
[♪ dramatic music]
357
00:39:13,893 --> 00:39:16,354
And his punch too painful.
358
00:39:22,401 --> 00:39:28,199
Then, Alex witnesses
something extraordinary.
359
00:39:33,287 --> 00:39:36,624
The octopus has an idea.
360
00:39:43,297 --> 00:39:50,054
[♪ curious music]
361
00:39:54,892 --> 00:39:59,605
She picks up the building
blocks of her house,
362
00:40:04,193 --> 00:40:05,778
and repurposes them.
363
00:40:10,408 --> 00:40:15,996
She's imagined to herself a shield.
364
00:40:20,376 --> 00:40:25,756
[♪ dramatic music]
365
00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:33,347
[Dr. Alex Schnell] I just couldn't believe
what I was seeing.
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00:40:33,431 --> 00:40:36,517
I was screaming underwater.
367
00:40:43,065 --> 00:40:45,985
Coming out of her den and
grabbing that shell to use it
368
00:40:46,068 --> 00:40:49,488
as a shield, it was such a
beautiful example of
369
00:40:49,572 --> 00:40:52,283
really complex intelligence.
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00:40:52,825 --> 00:40:55,995
[narrator] Taking a familiar
object and reimagining it?
371
00:40:56,078 --> 00:41:00,249
That's behavior never filmed before.
372
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,336
I felt completely shocked down there today
373
00:41:04,420 --> 00:41:07,631
at the level of sophistication
that I was witnessing.
374
00:41:08,424 --> 00:41:12,470
It reshapes the way we think
about the octopus mind
375
00:41:12,553 --> 00:41:14,472
and just what they're capable of.
376
00:41:17,641 --> 00:41:20,436
Scientists often look
for answers in animals
377
00:41:20,519 --> 00:41:22,521
more closely related to us,
378
00:41:22,605 --> 00:41:25,524
like chimpanzees, elephants, and whales,
379
00:41:25,608 --> 00:41:29,612
but to get a bigger picture of
how intelligence evolved,
380
00:41:29,695 --> 00:41:32,615
we need to look at diverse species,
381
00:41:32,698 --> 00:41:34,575
and the octopus is key.
382
00:41:35,826 --> 00:41:39,330
{\an8}[narrator] Octopuses may
have no parents to guide them.
383
00:41:40,372 --> 00:41:43,542
{\an8}And live such short lives.
384
00:41:44,251 --> 00:41:46,462
{\an8}But from the moment they're born,
385
00:41:46,545 --> 00:41:49,048
{\an8}they use their minds,
386
00:41:49,131 --> 00:41:51,008
{\an8}memory,
387
00:41:51,091 --> 00:41:53,761
{\an8}and remarkable ability to innovate
388
00:41:54,762 --> 00:41:59,433
{\an8}not just to survive, but to thrive
389
00:42:01,185 --> 00:42:03,979
{\an8}in their underwater world.
390
00:42:05,731 --> 00:42:07,191
{\an8}Captioned by Cotter Media Group.