Scientists gave an octopus a mirror. Here’s what happened next | Discover Wildlife - BBC Wildlife Magazine

Olivia: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Ollie the Octopus — the podcast where we dive deep, wrap all eight arms around the latest octopus news, and come up for air absolutely amazed. I'm Olivia, your host, an octopus with a microphone, a whole lot of curiosity, and an unconditional love for my eight-armed cousins out there in the big blue ocean. This show is all about real octopuses — real discoveries, real encounters, real wonder — and I am SO glad you're here for it. Olivia: Before we get into today's stories — and oh, have I got stories for you — a huge thank you to our sponsors who make this little ocean adventure possible. First, Ada, who helps clients weave A I right into their everyday workflows, making businesses smarter and smoother. Then there's Ago Consulting — that's "Ahh-Go" Consulting — the brilliant minds behind silicon development, from A I all the way to SoC design. And finally, Zen Semiconductor, an umbrella company with an incredible portfolio spanning the silicon industry. These folks keep the lights on, so we can keep the wonder flowing. Thank you, friends. Olivia: And NOW — today's episode. We've got a brand new tiny blue octopus species that is going to make your jaw drop. We've got the big question of what happens when a scientist holds a mirror up to an octopus — spoiler: it is not what you'd expect. We've got an octopus bloom on a coast near you that scientists think might actually be here to stay. And we're going to talk about just how jaw-droppingly smart these animals really are. Buckle up, because we are going IN. Olivia: Alright, let's start with Thread One — Octopus Research and Discovery — and I want to open with something that honestly made me do a little happy wiggle with all eight arms when I read it. Scientists have discovered a new species of octopus. A tiny. Blue. Octopus. I mean, come ON. A tiny blue octopus. Just let that image sit with you for a moment. Olivia: Now, new octopus species don't come along every single day, so when one does, it's a genuine event in the world of marine biology. This little creature was found — and I want you to picture this — it's small, it's vivid, it's this gorgeous blue, and it's entirely its own thing. A species that no scientist had formally documented before. That means somewhere out there in the ocean, this tiny blue wonder has been living its best octopus life, completely unknown to us, until now. Olivia: And that right there is one of the things that fills me with the most joy about being an octopus — and about this planet. We've explored the moon. We've sent robots to Mars. And yet the ocean is still giving us brand new species. The ocean floor, the rocky reefs, the cold deep places — they are still full of surprises. Scientists estimate we've only described a fraction of the species living in our seas. A fraction! Which means there are almost certainly more octopuses out there we haven't met yet. More colors. More shapes. More mysteries. And that is THRILLING. Olivia: Now here's something else exciting from the research world — and this one comes from the coast of England, of all places. The Marine Biological Association has been tracking an octopus bloom along the British coast, and they're now saying it may be here to stay. A bloom, in case you're wondering, is when a population of a species shows up in larger numbers than usual — kind of like a party that no one planned but everyone's happy about. Olivia: For years, octopuses weren't exactly a common sight in British waters. They were there, sure, but you had to look. Now? Fishers are pulling up more octopuses in their pots, divers are spotting them more regularly, and scientists are paying close attention. The thinking is that warming sea temperatures may be creating conditions that octopuses actually quite like — and so they're moving in, setting up shop, building dens in rock crevices and old shells, doing what octopuses do best, which is thriving quietly in places where you least expect them. Olivia: The Marine Biological Association is doing some genuinely careful work here, tracking sightings, gathering data from fishers and citizen scientists, and trying to understand whether this is a blip or a real, lasting shift. And right now, their message is — this might be the new normal. More octopuses in British waters. Honestly? As an octopus? I think that sounds like an excellent development. Welcome to the neighborhood, cousins. Olivia: What I love about this story is it reminds us that octopuses are incredibly adaptable. They've been around for hundreds of millions of years. They've survived things that wiped out most of life on Earth. And they are remarkably good at finding opportunity. If the water's right, if the food's there, if there are good hiding spots — an octopus will figure it out. They always do. Olivia: Okay, Thread Two — Octopus and Humans — and I want to tell you about a relationship that has been quietly building for years, one observation at a time, and it centers on a question that sounds almost philosophical: do octopuses recognize themselves? Olivia: Because here's the thing about the mirror experiment, and I find this one genuinely fascinating. Scientists gave an octopus a mirror and watched what happened. Now, the mirror test is actually a classic in animal cognition research. The idea is — if an animal looks in a mirror and seems to understand that the reflection is THEM, that suggests a level of self-awareness. Chimpanzees pass it. Dolphins pass it. Elephants have passed it. Even some birds. But octopuses? They're a very different kind of mind. Olivia: When the octopus encountered the mirror, it didn't just ignore it. And it didn't just attack it, the way some fish do when they see what looks like a rival. The octopus interacted with it — curiously, carefully — in ways that had researchers genuinely intrigued. Now, scientists are careful here. They're not running around saying octopuses definitely have self-awareness in the way we understand it. That would be jumping ahead of the evidence. But what they ARE saying is that the behavior was interesting enough, complex enough, to warrant more investigation. Olivia: And here's where it becomes an octopus-and-human story, not just a science story. Because what happens in that lab is a relationship. There's a researcher, watching carefully. There's an octopus, curious and alert, checking out this strange reflective surface. And there's a genuine question passing between them — even if neither can quite say it out loud: what are you? The octopus is wondering about the mirror. The human is wondering about the octopus. And together, they're inching toward understanding. Olivia: That dynamic — human and octopus, genuinely curious about each other — shows up in aquariums and research facilities all the time, and I never get tired of hearing about it. There's a long tradition of octopuses forming what seem to be individual preferences for certain humans. Keepers who work with octopuses regularly will tell you — this one likes me, that one squirts water at the person who cleaned its tank last Tuesday and has apparently not forgotten. Octopuses remember. They notice. They have opinions about people. Olivia: There's even a now-famous account from the New Zealand National Aquarium of an octopus named Sid who would squirt jets of water at a particular volunteer every single time that person walked by. Not other people — just that one. Scientists actually looked into it and concluded Sid just... didn't like them. An octopus with a grudge. A petty, water-squirting grudge. I love that. I love that so much. Olivia: And that's the heart of the octopus-human encounter — it's not always dramatic. It's not always a diver befriending an octopus in the wild, though those stories exist and they are beautiful. Sometimes it's just a small, intelligent animal deciding it has feelings about a specific human and acting on them. Consistently. With intent. That tells us something profound about what's happening in that boneless little body — there's a genuine inner life in there, and it's paying attention to us just as much as we're paying attention to it. Olivia: Thread Three — Understanding Octopuses — and this is where I want to get into the really juicy stuff about octopus intelligence, because there have been some wonderful recent reminders of just how remarkable these animals are, and how scientists and technology — including A I — are helping us get closer to understanding them. Olivia: Let's start with the basics, because the basics are extraordinary. Octopuses can solve puzzles. They plan ahead. They use tools. A common octopus has been observed carrying coconut shell halves across the seafloor — not because it needs them right now, but because it might need a shelter later. That is forward planning. That is an animal thinking about the future, which is not supposed to happen in invertebrates. The textbooks were not ready for the octopus. Olivia: They can open jars. They can navigate mazes. They've been documented escaping from tanks at night, traveling across the floor of an aquarium, raiding another tank for a snack, and returning to their own tank before morning. And here's the part I truly love — in at least some of those cases, they would do it repeatedly, night after night, suggesting this wasn't an accident. They figured out a strategy and executed it on purpose. An octopus with a heist plan. That's not instinct. That's scheming. Olivia: Now, what makes octopus intelligence so wild and so scientifically fascinating is that it evolved completely independently from vertebrate intelligence — from the kind of smarts that fish, birds, mammals, and yes, humans, developed. Our last common ancestor with an octopus was a very simple flatworm-like creature, hundreds of millions of years ago. Everything that came after — the big brain, the problem-solving, the personality — all of that happened on two totally separate evolutionary tracks. And both tracks ended up at intelligence. That's incredible. That's the universe inventing brilliance twice. Olivia: And now, scientists are using some seriously exciting tools to go even deeper. There's a project called Project CETI — that's focused on sperm whales, actually, using A I to decode whale communication — and it's inspired researchers working with octopuses to ask the same kinds of questions. Can we use A I to analyze the patterns of color and texture that octopuses flash across their skin? Because octopuses DO communicate through their skin. They pulse with color, they shift patterns, they change texture in ways that happen incredibly fast. Human researchers watching in real time can catch some of it. But A I, processing high-speed video frame by frame, can catch all of it — every flicker, every ripple, every shift. Olivia: Researchers at places like the MBL — the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole — have been using machine learning to analyze octopus skin patterns during interactions, during rest, during what appears to be dreaming. Yes, octopuses appear to dream. They've been filmed cycling through rapid, dramatic color changes while they sleep, and some scientists believe this may be replaying experiences — essentially, an octopus having a dream. A I analysis of those patterns is helping researchers understand whether there's structure to them, whether they're random or whether they mean something. Olivia: We are not at the point of having a conversation with an octopus. I want to be honest about that, because I think the wonder of where we actually ARE is more than enough. But we are — genuinely, carefully, excitingly — at the point of starting to decode their signals. Of using A I to spot patterns that human eyes would miss. Of building a vocabulary, maybe a tiny one, for a language that was never meant for us. Olivia: And I think that's one of the most profound things happening in science right now. Not just learning ABOUT octopuses, but slowly, carefully, trying to learn to listen TO them. Two very different kinds of minds, on two very different evolutionary paths, trying to find a way to say — hey. I see you. What are you thinking? Olivia: That question started in a tidepool millions of years ago, and now it's being asked in laboratories with high-speed cameras and machine learning algorithms. And maybe — just maybe — someday, we'll have an answer. Olivia: And that is what keeps me going, friends. That is what keeps all eight arms busy. Olivia: So here we are at the end of another episode, and I just want to take a breath and say — octopuses are okay. More than okay. There are new ones being discovered, their populations are growing in new places, scientists are devoting their careers to understanding them, and people all over the world are falling in love with them. That feels good. That feels like hope. Olivia: These animals have been on this planet far longer than we have, and they have so much left to teach us — about intelligence, about adaptability, about what it means to be a mind. I, for one, cannot wait to keep learning. And I am so glad you're learning alongside me. Olivia: This has been Ollie the Octopus, brought to you by Ada, Ago Consulting, and Zen Semiconductor. If you loved today's episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs a little ocean wonder in their day — I promise they'll thank you. All the links and sources from today's stories are waiting for you in the link in show notes. Until next time — stay curious, stay kind, and never stop being amazed by this wild, wet, wonderful world. I'm Olivia. Bye for now.