Photo by Basil Bohn |
There she appeared, crawling and flashing her brilliant
spectrum of colors – diver masks nearly pressed against the sand. The flamboyance of this charismatic creature apparent in the way she moves, the way she looks, the psychedelic flashings of
her aposematic skin. She’s a teacup poodle of the cuttlefish family, and she
hovers and twirls her tiny translucent ballerina skirt of a fin. She prowls and scours the
sandy ocean floor, a small desert for her, and protrudes her many trunk like modified arms and tentacles searching for tiny crustaceans and fishes. When this charming predator spots
her prey, her florescent hue turns to a sandy
camouflage and with lightning
speed, a milky white tentacle shoots out to capture her unsuspecting meal. Equally
awesome and strange in her mating rituals, this tiny tennis ball proportioned Cephalopoda,
will dwarf her male be counterpart, before he injects her arm with his
sperm packet. In turn, she will store the sperm to make eggs and spit them out
of her squiggly mouth, hiding them one by one in protected recesses, before
dying a selfless reproduction death.
Photo by Basil Bohn |
Wonderful and strange is this ocean world, and some days,
only the happy muffled squeals of a Sophie excited by sea life in a Dr. Seuss
world can express the delight.
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If you want to help with any marine conservation activity, please
Photo by Basil Bohn |
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