Spot the difference time; two quick clips of truly fascinating animals that you can see whilst SCUBA diving in Palau; the Chambered Nautilus and the Octopus both from the cephalopod family.
Found throughout the western tropical Pacific and Indo-Pacific; Nautilus inhabit the deep, dark abyssal areas in near total darkness. They have fantastically well developed senses of taste and smell to help them locate prey and carrion. They join the incredible biomass of other animals that make the vertical migration each night from depths of 300m or more to shallower waters of 100m following the food chain. It is possible to catch them in traps as they come up by using a steel cage and a dead chicken, gross I know but they love it. The cage is bought up to recreational diving limits in the morning and it gives us the lucky few a chance to dive with them.
The Octopus is another incredible animal, intelligent, capable of puzzle solving and with 8 arms a mutitasking brain. I filmed these two late afternoon at 20m as they were "getting to know each other better" The male extends out a tentacle and deposits a package of sperm inside the female's mantle whilst giving an amazing display of skin colour and texture changes. The Octopus has lost it's external shell and now uses camouflage and an extremely flexible body to avoid predation. A good way to locate one is to look for discarded bivalve shells around their dens, they just throw out the dinner plates!
Whats even more incredible is that they are both related to your common garden snail!
