During sleep, more or less strange phenomena occur: some of us talk, others get upset, someone suffers from sleepwalking.
However, the octopus definitely beats all of us, because this animal even changes colour during rest and does so in relation to what it is dreaming about.
Marine biologist David Scheel closely observed the behaviour of a captive octopus and recorded the colour changes of the animal during sleep in a video.
In the short documentary entitled "Octopus: Making Contact" the colour changes of the octopus are clearly visible, which from white first turns yellow, then gradually darkens until it takes on a very dark hue and finally turns white again.
According to the biologist, the variation in the colouring of the octopus is due to the dreamlike activity of the mollusk. Scheel believes that during sleep the marine creature was dreaming of hunting and that this caused a change in the colour of his body, which went from white to black. It is a phenomenon that occurs when the octopus is awake and is really hunting, to blend in with the seabed and not attract the attention of the prey to itself.
“At this moment he sleeps, dreams of a crab and his colour starts to change a little, it becomes darker. [...] is his way of blending in with the environment [...] is truly fascinating and, yes, he is dreaming," explains Scheel in the video.
Extraordinary images that demonstrate how nature is always able to surprise us, especially the one that populates the seabed, an immense and mysterious ecosystem.