Overwhelming Octopuses

          Octopuses are smart and shy. They want to be left alone. When they look for food, they must be very careful to avoid their enemies. The dolphin may look cute but it is one of the octopuses' enemies. The octopuses' secret weapon is their ink. They can spray ink into the water and makes it black. They can also change color -- they turn themselves black so that their enemies can't see them. After awhile they change back to their original color and move away. Octopuses don't swim, they jet themselves away using siphons. One cool octopus is the mimic octopus. They fool the damselfish by digging six legs in the ground and changes into the color of a band sea snake. Another interesting one is the blue ringed octopus. It is so poisonous that it can kill a human!

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Spirn, Michele. Smart Animals! Octopuses. New York, NY: Bearport Publishing, 2007.