PHOTOS Jason Isley, Roger Munns, Simon Enderby/Scubazoo
Off the North East tip of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi lies the Lembeh strait. Fierce currents coupled with a barren, black sand landscape have made the strait a virtual underwater desert. With little shelter for predator or prey, the residents of this black sand sahara have had to adapt to their surroundings, becoming masters of the art of deception and camoufl age. A perfect subject for Nick Baker to investigate in the second season of his Animal Planet series Nick Baker's Weird Creatures, the mimic octopus has been championed as the king of this art.
The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) was discovered by Cephalopod expert Mark Norman in the Lembeh strait around the late nineties. He attributed to it the ability to mimic other animals that share its environment. Mimicry is not uncommon in nature, but until the mimic octopus, no animal had been credited with the ability to impersonate several diff erent species at will. The most widely recognised and photographed mimics are the banded sea krait, fl ounder and crinoid.
Nature
