Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bolga Bam here. Don't let the beauty
Speaker 1: or size of the blue ringed octopus fool you. With
Speaker 1: bright yellow skin patterned with small blue rings that intensify
Speaker 1: when it's threatened or under stress. The body of the
Speaker 1: tiny octopus doesn't get much bigger than a golf ball
Speaker 1: and can be as small as a penny, but this
Speaker 1: octopus is extremely venomous. They're native to the Pacific Ocean
Speaker 1: from Australia and Indonesia to the Philippines, Japan, and South Korea.
Speaker 1: They live in coral reefs and tide pools, and when
Speaker 1: they're not out hunting for food or looking for a mate,
Speaker 1: they hide in crevices or shells. They generally eat small
Speaker 1: crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp, and can live for
Speaker 1: about two years. They were also a recurring symbol in
Speaker 1: James Bond film Octopusy. The partitular character Octopusy, named for
Speaker 1: her father's pet blue ringed octopus, led the Octopus Cult
Speaker 1: in the film. The animal is also the symbol of
Speaker 1: the organization, and all of its members had a blue
Speaker 1: ringed octopus tattooed on their bottom, but fictional phase aside.
Speaker 1: The blue ringed octopus is in fact not one single species.
Speaker 1: There are two species known as blue ringed octopuses, the
Speaker 1: greater blue ringed octopus and the southern or lesser blue
Speaker 1: ringed octopus. For the article this episode is based on
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works, spoke with Peter Morse, a marine zoologist
Speaker 1: at James Cooke University in North Queensland, Australia, who studies
Speaker 1: these octopuses and in particular they're mating habits. He says
Speaker 1: that one of the main differences between the two species
Speaker 1: of blue ringed octopus is how they reproduce. The greater
Speaker 1: blue ringed octopuses, along with living longer and generally growing
Speaker 1: a little larger, have a planktonic larval phase, meaning they
Speaker 1: start off life as plankton before growing into the octopuses
Speaker 1: we know. This helps them disperse much farther, making their
Speaker 1: range wider and their population larger. The southern blue ringed octopus,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, hatches many adults more said they
Speaker 1: can only get as far as they can crawl in
Speaker 1: a lifetime. This means that there's more inbreeding among this
Speaker 1: species Aside from its striking coloring, what the blue ringed
Speaker 1: octopus is most famous form is its highly toxic venom,
Speaker 1: which is a thousand times more powerful and cyanide, and
Speaker 1: each octopus has enough venom to kill more than twenty
Speaker 1: humans within minutes. The deadly venom is a powerful neurotoxin
Speaker 1: called to trototoxin, the same venom found in pufferfish. While
Speaker 1: their bite may be very toxic, a blue ringed octopuses
Speaker 1: are generally not a danger to humans. They usually won't
Speaker 1: bite unless provoked. But what happens if a person does
Speaker 1: get bitten. The venom lasts between twelve and forty hours,
Speaker 1: depending on the size of the person and how much
Speaker 1: venom they get from the bite. The venom is a
Speaker 1: post synaptic walker, which means it blocks some neurotransmitters or
Speaker 1: nerve signals in the body. This only affects smooth muscles,
Speaker 1: so the person would go limp with what's called flaccid paralysis,
Speaker 1: and while it doesn't affect the heart, it does hit
Speaker 1: the diaphragm, so the person would stop breathing. This happens
Speaker 1: within minutes of a bite. Other signs of flaccid paralysis
Speaker 1: could be nausea, blurred vision, or difficulty swallowing. And the
Speaker 1: bad news is that there's no anti venom available, so
Speaker 1: emergency care would be required immediately. More said, because they're
Speaker 1: nocturnal and they're very shy, and they give plenty of
Speaker 1: warning as well, you really would have to be very
Speaker 1: stubborn to get bitten. The venom is very potent and
Speaker 1: there isn't an anti venom, but the venom does wear off,
Speaker 1: so if the bitten person could get life saving techniques
Speaker 1: during that time, they could be okay. The good news
Speaker 1: is that there are only a few bites to humans
Speaker 1: every year, and there have been only three known deaths
Speaker 1: from their bites. That's likely because blue ringed octopuses mostly
Speaker 1: use their venom to hunt and eat. When they're young,
Speaker 1: they eat very small shrimp, and as they get older
Speaker 1: and bigger, they take down crabs and small prawns to feed.
Speaker 1: They use their venom in a couple of ways. Of first,
Speaker 1: they might jump on the back of their prey and
Speaker 1: crack the shell with their beak, then inject the venom
Speaker 1: directly into the wound, or they might release a cloud
Speaker 1: of venom into the water near the prey so that
Speaker 1: the prey would take it in through their gills. Crabs,
Speaker 1: for example, have an open circulatory system, so the venom
Speaker 1: goes through their body pretty quickly and they go limp.
Speaker 1: A blue ringed octopus is generally feed on crustaceans that
Speaker 1: are equal to or smaller than the size of their
Speaker 1: own heads. More said, even though they have venom, they
Speaker 1: usually don't take too many risks because a large crab
Speaker 1: can still do some damage. Anything bigger is probably not
Speaker 1: worth it for them. One mystery of the blue ringed octopus,
Speaker 1: according to Morse, is exactly how oh it gets its
Speaker 1: venom and when. We do know that the octopuses don't
Speaker 1: produce the venom themselves. Instead, it's produced by bacteria in
Speaker 1: their salivary glands. However, what's still not clear is where
Speaker 1: those bacteria come from or how the venom is passed
Speaker 1: from parent to child, as even larva in eggs produce
Speaker 1: the venom. I'm Moore said, we really don't know if
Speaker 1: you were to keep the octopuses in captivity, if they
Speaker 1: would need to be exposed to something or eat something
Speaker 1: to maintain their venom. But as long as they are
Speaker 1: producing venom, they will remain one of the deadliest animals
Speaker 1: in the ocean. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: the tiny blue ringed octopus is the Ocean's Deadliest on
Speaker 1: house to farks dot com, written by Stephanie Parker. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in partnership with hous
Speaker 1: to fworks dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Clay.
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