page_title: Mimic octopus
section_title: Behavior
hierarchical_section_title: Mimic octopus / Behavior
caption_attribution_description: Mimic Octopus
context_page_description: The mimic octopus is an Indo-Pacific species of octopus from the Indo-Pacific region. Like other octopuses, it uses its chromatophores to disguise itself with its background. However, it is noteworthy for being able to impersonate a wide variety of other marine animals. Although many animals mimic either their environment or other animals to avoid predation, the mimic octopus and its close relative the wunderpus are the only ones known to actively imitate a number of animals in order to elude predators.
context_section_description: The mimic octopus uses a jet of water through its funnel to glide over the sand while searching for prey, typically small fish, crabs, and worms.  It prefers river mouths and estuaries, as opposed to reefs which are usually preferred as shelter by other types of octopus. This is due to its ability to impersonate toxic animals, putting it at less risk of predation than others in the open.
  Mimic octopuses have been observed mimicking numerous different species of animals, some animals being mimicked more often than others. Among the animals mimicked are lion fish (the octopus holds its arms out radially to mimic the fish's spines), sea snake (hiding 6 of its arms, it holds the remaining 2 parallel to each other), jellyfish (by inflating its mantle and trailing its arms behind it), and zebra sole (holding all 8 arms behind it as it uses its siphon to swim). The octopus' mimicry of flatfish may be its preferred guise; in a period of 5 days nearly 500 instances of flatfish mimicry were seen. Not only does the mimic octopus use its ability to defend from predators, it also uses aggressive mimicry to approach wary prey, for example mimicking a crab as an apparent mate, only to devour its deceived suitor.
  The mimic octopus retains the ability to camouflage with its sandy environment. It was also observed to mimic sessile animals such as small sponges, tube-worm tubes, or colonial tunicates.
  The octopus may be able to intelligently use its mimicry based on the situation. For example, an octopus which was being harassed by damselfish mimicked a banded sea snake, a damselfish predator. It decides which mimicry behavior would be most appropriate and acts upon it.
caption: Mimic octopus showing a variant pattern
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