When Foster began following the octopus, she was wary, rarely allowing him to get close. Foster’s daily observations became the basis for the 2020 Netflix Original My Octopus Teacher, which captivated audiences when it debuted and won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, among numerous other honors.Īlthough the film offers a detailed portrait of a wild animal’s life, its true subject is not so much the octopus herself as her relationship with Foster.

Over the following year, he documented her many remarkable behaviors: how she used shells and seaweed to defend herself from sharks, innovated new hunting strategies, regrew a limb after a serious injury, and eventually mated and cared for thousands of eggs. Wrapping herself in a sheet of kelp, the octopus briefly studied Foster before jetting away behind a cloud of ink.Įnthralled by the octopus’s ingenuity, Foster, a filmmaker, decided to start visiting her every day. Suddenly, with a sound like clattering teacups, the shells tumbled apart and a maroon octopus shot out of their midst.

One morning, while diving in a kelp forest off the coast of South Africa, Craig Foster noticed an unusual structure: a mound of seashells artfully stuck together, as though someone’s beach house decor had washed out to sea.

Watch the recording of “ The Social Lives of Octopuses” for more on this topic from Piero Amodio and Ferris Jabr.

Common octopus