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| Photo Basil Bohn |
15 meters down below the TRACC jetty a coquettish female day
octopus waits. She is curled into the crevice of a tire with wide doe eyes and domed
head peaking above the tire rim. About 4 meters away her male counterpart shyly
waits by a patch of coral, peaking his head towards her in a cautious manner,
seemingly unsure of how to approach his waiting mate. His caution is justified;
sometimes his bigger stronger hungrier counterpart will consume her mate in a
cannibalistic fashion. Yet, soon his courage blooms and he sidles towards the
tire and his halfway hidden mate in a distinguished waltz. As he dances over he
flashes the fanciest of his colors in swaying patterns of black tie octopus
attire. Upon arrival, he seemingly scopes out the scene - perhaps he is
assessing the potential danger of his promiscuous urges? He crafts his body
into the physiology of a pyramid and peeks over the rim, as if asking if he is
allowed to enter the domain of his soon to be mate, before gliding over the
barrier of the tire to cautiously position himself opposite of her, equally hidden
in the tires empty inner crevice.
This manly day octopus is semi-prepared for the potential
danger of his procreative urge, he is equipped with an extra long reproductive
arm called the hectocotylus complete with sperm packet attached to the tip. Once,
twice, three times, in a gesture of gentlemanly grace he cautiously offers his hectocotylus
and then withdraws. Still, his mate waits upon his advances, sometimes in a
flirtatious or perhaps predatory manner she gently sways and shows the inside
of her tentacle arms.
In a final chivalrous procreant gesture and gift, he rolls
his hectocotylus around the inside of the empty tire tube to touch his female
equivalent. To complete the act he must carefully and cautiously insert this tentacle into the most intimate of places in his mate – through the
siphon behind her eyes and into the ovaries located at the tip or her head. It
appears as an intimate hand holding between two mollusced lovers shyly meeting
for the first time. Yet, this seemingly intimate gesture is tarnished by the
knowledge that this specialized reproductive arm; the hectocotylus is a means
of evolutionary self-defense. The sex life of a male octopus is fraught with danger;
get too close to a lady lover and maybe you’ll get eaten.
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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org
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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please
check our website http://tracc.org or e-mail info@tracc-borneo.org
For more updates on TRACC check out our Facebook, Twitter or Google +
Reef conservation would not be possible without generous financial support from
GEF /SGP for Malaysia who are helping our community activities and coralreefcare.com who generously provided materials to build the new reefs.
If visits to Tracc are not possible then please help with financial support and follow their projects on Facebook.