Tree Octopus

Tree Octopus SightingsTree Octopuses are some of the most elusive creatures known to Man. Not many researchers have managed to take a photograph of them in the wild and those few Tree Octopuses in captivity tend to hide in inaccessable corners of their cages, as if purposefully avoiding the prying of humans.Any Tree Octopus sighting should be sent to lyle@zapatopi.net. If it adds significantly to Tree Octopus research it may end up on this page.2002-08-27: "I have seen a tree octopus!"Dear sir,I am a canopy research currently based in Tasmania, Australia. I came your web site and was very excited, for cephalopods are another dear interest of mine. I would like to share a photograph with you. I spent last June studying in the coniferous forests of Mt. St. Helens and Rainier for an international canopy network project mapping trees. ICAN is based out of the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. We would climb the trees each day and measure branching structure.Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. I saw it from above, on rope at perhaps 30 meters. It was maybe 12 meters below me. This was in early August 2001. I will scan my files for other pictures and see if I can locate another one of these elusive camouflaged creatures. I also invite you to visit my University of Tasmania web page at www.geog.utas.edu.au/yoav and browse.I invite you to post this photograph on your web page. It would be an honour to be included on such a site about such an amazing and little known creature. The photograph is also at the bottom of the linkage page on my web site. Is this the first confirmed sighting of one of these creatures outside of the Olympics? If you suspect that it is a seperate subspecies, I propose it be named Octopus paxarbolis var. cascadii. Slightly better than naming it after myself, I think.[...] If you have any suggestions on how to integrate a Tree Octopus research program into my study, please let me know. My project proposal is available on the web site. I suspect that there is an analogous creature in the eucalyptus rainforests of SE Australia. I will find them if I can!Also, I still haven't seen the giant squid at the museum that washed ashore a few miles from here. But I will....Cheers!Yoav Daniel Bar-NessThe following photo appears to be of some species of Deciduous Tree Octopus, most likely O. saccharum or the Sugar Octopus. They occur most often in coastal New England, where they use their beaks to break the bark of maple trees and slurp the sap. These tree octopuses die off annually with the changing of the leaves, dropping to the ground where they are then gathered by the local Hominoids as sweet Fall snacks. Although not closely related to O. paxarbolis, they do share a common plight as environmental disruption and poaching for the lucrative Japanese dessert sushi market has brought Sugar Octopus populations to dangerously low levels.2002-12-21: "Tree Octopus Sighting!!!!"Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. I was recently taking pictures of the beautiful scenery while on vacation, when I noticed something odd crawling through the trees. To my disbelief, I discovered that it was a tree octopus! It moved extremely quickly, but I managed to get a good picture of it, and I think you'll agree that it's a pretty high-quality photo. I hope you add this picture to your site so that people can see the beauty of the tree octopus.Sincerely,JonathanThis is why you should always bring an umbrella with you in the Hoh Rainforest...2003-06-04: "Possible Tree Octopus Sighting!"Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. I was hiking with my Aunt Gene last August in the Hoh rain forest when I shot this slide. It wasn't until a few months later, when I was giving a slide presentation, that I noticed the mass in the upper left corner. I thought it appeared a little strange, but it wasn't until I stumbled across your site that I realized that I had found an elusive tree octopus! I feel so lucky to have accidentally gotten a photo of this amazing creature!-- JustinBelow is a first hand account of the cephalopodic carnage that results when tree octopuses cross the road...2004-02-11I am well acquainted with the tree octopus from the time I lived in Tacoma. For a time I dated a girl who lived in Port Angeles on the north end of the Olympic peninsula. Because it was a about a three hour I'd drive up to visit her on the weekends. The route I'd drive to and from visiting her crossed the Hood canal and then followed its western shore for some distance. It's a beautiful, unspoiled area of virgin forest at the foot of the majestic Olympic mountains in the west, and the beautiful waters of the Hood canal and Puget sound to the east. Many times while driving back home late I would see tree octopi (or "tree squawbs" as the locals call them) as they crossed the road heading for the canal, obviously on their way back to spawn... (Read more on the Louisville Scuba Divers website.) Report of tree octopus seen east of Seattle, possibly feeding on bugs. Unlikely to be O. paxarbolis, as they could never survive crossing the I5 corridor...2004-10-29: "Tree Octopus Sighting East of Seattle!"Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. A friend an I were looking for interesting bugs in a dense forest east of Seattle. My friend John is the man hanging from a rope in the middle of the photo. I was taking a picture of him hanging from the ropes with my digital camera when I noticed in the picture preview there was something on the base of one of the trees. I Looked at the tree and saw what appeared to be an octopus. It was rather dark because the sun was on the other side of the tree, so I took a photo of it with my heat sensing camera to make sure that it was a living creature. I then went searching on the internet for a tree-climbing octopus site and I found this one. Here is the photo I was talking about, I hope it helps your studies.Sincerely,Peter RootesAnother sighting of an Australian species of tree octopus, this one associating with an arboreal marsupial...2005-04-28: "Tree-ringed octopus sighted with koalas"Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. At last! Someone who can testify to the reality of such rare and beautious beasts.It was a fine Spring day. We hapless residents of Daisy Hill were out photographing the last remaining large koala habitat in SE Queensland, with developers poised at our doorstep (www.savedaisyhill.com), snapping away at the innocent koalas sleeping peacefully in the treetops, when lo! The great and very endangered Tree-ringed octopus appeared swinging amongst the branches. Very unusual for such a shy animal.Developers are still poised at our doorstep. We know our plight to save the Tree-ringed octopus is futile, but this, at least, is testimony to the world that they once inhabited this great land.Hapalochlaena eucalyptlata, which is known to grow up to 30cm (12 in) across bears bright blue rings when angered, and can inflict a lethal bite, much like it's marine cousin, the lesser Hapalochlaena lunulata.Since both species carry enough poison to kill 26 adults within minutes, we're hoping there'll be enough to go around for the developers and their bulldozer wielding lackeys.Sonny Whitelaw