WEBVTT FILE
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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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[waves crashing]
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[seagull squawking]
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[female chanting playing]
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[man] A lot of people say
that an octopus is like an alien.
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But the strange thing is,
as you get closer to them,
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you realize that we're very similar
in a lot of ways.
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You're stepping
into this completely different world.
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Such an incredible feeling.
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And you feel you're on the brink
of something extraordinary.
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[upbeat orchestral music playing]
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But you realize
that there's a line that can't be crossed.
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[tense music playing]
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It's quite a long time ago now,
that day when it all started.
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[thunder rumbling]
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[seagulls squawking]
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This place on the tip of Africa
is known as the Cape of Storms.
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My childhood memories
are completely dominated
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by the rocky shore, the intertidal
and the kelp forest.
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We had this little wooden bungalow,
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literally below the high-water mark.
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So when those huge storms
used to come in,
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the ocean used to smash the doors down
and fill up the bottom of the house.
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So it was incredibly exciting as a child
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to literally live
in the force of that giant Atlantic Ocean.
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Most of my childhood
was spent in the rock pools,
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diving in the shallow kelp forest.
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That's what I most loved to do.
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As an adult, I'd been separated from that.
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And that was fine at first.
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Until I went to the central Kalahari
about 20 years ago.
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I was making a film
called The Great Dance with my brother.
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And then I met these men
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who were probably
some of the best trackers in the world.
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To watch these men...
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go into the incredible,
subtle signs in nature,
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things that my eye couldn't even see,
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and then follow them, sometimes for hours,
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and find hidden animals in the landscape
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was just extraordinary to witness.
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I mean, they just were
inside of the natural world.
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And I could feel I was outside.
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And I had this deep longing
to be inside that world.
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I went through two years of absolute hell.
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[indistinct chattering]
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I had been working hard for a long time,
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I'd just worn myself out.
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I hadn't slept properly for months.
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My family was suffering.
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And I was getting sick
from all the pressure.
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My mind couldn't deal with all that stuff.
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And I didn't wanna see a camera
or an edit suite ever again.
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I couldn't even face that.
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Your great purpose in life is now...
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just in pieces.
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And you've got this young child
that's growing up.
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Tom.
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I just couldn't, in that state,
be a good father to my son.
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I had to have a radical change.
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And I took inspiration from my childhood,
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and I took inspiration
from these master trackers
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I worked with in the Kalahari.
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And the only way I knew
how to do it was to...
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be in this ocean.
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In the beginning,
it's a hard thing to get in the water.
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It's one of the wildest, most scary places
to swim on the planet.
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The water drops to as low
as eight, nine degrees Celsius.
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The cold takes your breath away.
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And you just have to relax.
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And then you'll get
this beautiful window of time
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for 10, 15 minutes.
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Suddenly...
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everything feels okay.
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The cold upgrades the brain because
you're getting this flood of chemicals
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every time you immerse in that cold water.
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Your whole body comes alive.
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And then, as your body adapts,
it just becomes easier and easier.
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[gentle orchestral music plays]
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And eventually...
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after about a year...
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you start to crave the cold.
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[breathes deeply]
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What's so amazing about this environment
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is you're in a three-dimensional forest,
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and you can jump off the top
and go wherever you want.
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You're flying, basically.
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[piano music playing]
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You might as well be on another planet.
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You naturally just get
more relaxed in the water.
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You get to be able
to hold your breath for longer.
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Having a scuba tank in a thick kelp forest
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is not optimal for me.
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I want to be more like
an amphibious animal.
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Instinctively,
I knew not to wear a wet suit.
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If you really wanna get close to...
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an environment like this,
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it helps tremendously to have
no barrier to that environment.
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And I suddenly realized I've got energy
to take images and film again...
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and then picked up my camera again
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and started doing the thing I love
and what I know.
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[piano music soars]
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The animals are extremely
exotic and strange.
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It's, like, much more extreme
than our maddest science fiction.
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I remember that day when it all started.
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I found this very, very special area
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that is protected
with a big piece of kelp forest,
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'cause the forest itself
actually dampens the swell.
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And the whole forest around there
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is absolutely murky,
and you can't see a thing.
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And in this little 200-meter patch,
you can dive
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and observe.
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And it's an incredible place.
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And I remember there was
this strange shape to my left
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and just going down...
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and seeing this really strange thing.
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[delicate piano music playing]
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The fish even seemed to be confused.
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And then, suddenly...
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[gentle orchestral music plays]
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At the time, I didn't know
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I'd witnessed something extraordinary.
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I'd come in at the end of a whole drama.
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You think,
"What on earth is this animal doing?"
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And I think she was
a little bit afraid of me,
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so she lifted this incredibly slippery...
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piece of algae that you can hardly
hold with your hands
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and just wrapped it
in this extraordinary cloak around her
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and then stared at me
out of the little gap.
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And then, boom, you know, she was gone.
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It's a hard thing to explain,
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but sometimes you just get a feeling,
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and you know
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there's-- there's something
to this creature that's very unusual.
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There's something to learn here.
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There's something special about her.
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And then I had this crazy idea.
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What happens if I just went every day?
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What happens if I... I never missed a day?
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And, initially, she was clearly
being affected by my presence,
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so I thought,
"I'll leave the camera there,
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and then that will record her
going about her business."
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She sees this shiny new thing
in the forest.
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Coming at it with a shield,
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just in case it attacked,
and put up the shield.
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This is something different.
This is interesting.
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Touching it, feeling it, tasting it.
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If she was in a playful mood,
you couldn't leave it there for too long.
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She'd just pull the thing over.
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It took going in every day to really
get to know her environment better.
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Initially, it all just seems
like much of the same thing.
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But then, after a while, you see
all the different types of the forest.
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You get the old-growth forest.
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You get the forest with a lot
of different algae growing in the bottom.
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You get the misty forest.
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As I started to map
the environment around her den,
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it was shocking to see small caves
really close to her,
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packed with pyjama sharks.
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And they really are
her most serious predator.
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Their skin is striped.
That's why they're called a pyjama shark.
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They're not visual predators.
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But they have
an incredible sense of smell.
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And they are particularly aggressive.
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They can shove their noses
into a small crack.
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So they are
deadly little octopus predators.
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And I was thinking, "Well, how long before
something happens with these animals?"
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After visiting her more and more and more,
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there was a definite moment where...
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that fear had subsided tremendously.
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She'd see big movement,
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and she'd be slightly afraid
and then look, "Oh, it's him."
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And she'd come out and be very curious.
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Very interested, very curious,
but not taking stupid chances.
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Keeping all the other arms
attached to the den
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and the suckers in place.
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And then it just happens.
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I put my hand out a tiny bit.
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[gentle music plays]
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Something happens
when that animal makes contact.
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But, at some point,
you're gonna have to breathe.
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So you've got to very gently
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prize off those suckers
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without disturbing her,
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so that you can actually
go up and take a breath.
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By far the most powerful
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is when it comes out the den
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because that's when you know
there's full trust.
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There's no holding the arms back
just in case I have to pull back.
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It's like, "I totally trust this human,
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and I'm coming out of the den,
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and I'm gonna go about my business."
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I started to see
pretty extraordinary things.
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They can look spiky. They can look smooth.
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Grow horns on their heads.
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They can match color,
texture, pattern, skin.
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It's beautiful.
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Most of the time, she's jetting
or crawling or swimming.
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But occasionally,
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two legs come out.
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She walks.
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And off she goes, striding away,
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walking bipedally.
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She puts her body into this strange
posture that kind of looks like a rock.
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And then two of those arms underneath
slowly moving,
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so the rock is just slowly moving away.
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And then she changes
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into this extraordinary, wobbly,
flowy old lady in a dress.
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Perhaps she's trying to mimic
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kelp or algae moving in the swell...
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and, at the same time,
is slowly moving away.
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And this is how she works.
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This incredible creativity to deceive.
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An octopus is essentially a snail
that's lost its shell in evolution.
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A very fragile, liquid, soft animal
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that relies on tremendous intelligence.
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She's got no mother or father
to teach her anything. She's alone.
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'Cause you've got all these different
types of predators, all hunting her.
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So, over millions of years,
she's had to...
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come up with the most incredible methods
to deceive them.
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And she's got to learn fast because
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she's only got just over a year to live.
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When you're diving alone,
everything about my kit has to be perfect.
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And I've gotta be prepared
for all eventualities.
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I can't be fiddling around.
It's gotta be instinctive.
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But, at that point,
I was making a lot of mistakes.
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One day, she was following me.
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And that's the most incredible thing,
is to be followed by an octopus.
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You know, you're just backing away,
moving backwards,
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and this incredible animal
is coming towards you.
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And there's not
a lot of fear in it at all.
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It's curious, and there's trust,
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and it's like this fantastic feeling.
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[gentle piano music plays]
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And then, bam!
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I dropped one of my lenses,
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and that thing falling quickly
just startles that animal.
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And then it turns and rushes,
and it's got a huge fright.
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And you just... you wanna kick yourself,
because it's, you know...
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That could have ended in the most
incredible interaction and deep trust,
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and you've ruined it.
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Now, you know, have you ruined it forever?
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Uh, is that animal ever gonna trust you?
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Has that... has that experience
freaked it out too much?
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And then I approached her too fast.
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And that's when she left the den
and got a real fright...
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and didn't come back to that den.
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And I thought this was over.
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She was gone.
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I'd had this experience
with these incredible San master trackers.
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I just thought, "I wonder if anybody
could ever track anything underwater?"
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This animal has spent millions of years
learning to be impossible to find.
252
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:08.840
I had to learn
what octopus tracks looked like.
253
00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:15.400
And that was very frustrating at first,
so difficult to discern.
254
00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:17.800
What's the difference
between octopus tracks
255
00:26:17.880 --> 00:26:19.440
and heart urchin tracks
256
00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:21.200
and fish tracks...
257
00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:24.200
and worm tracks?
258
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:27.720
And the predation marks.
259
00:26:30.120 --> 00:26:31.800
The egg casings.
260
00:26:34.560 --> 00:26:36.080
I needed to learn everything.
261
00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:51.200
And then you have to start thinking...
262
00:26:51.760 --> 00:26:52.880
like an octopus.
263
00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:01.720
It's like being a detective.
264
00:27:02.600 --> 00:27:05.200
And you just slowly
get all your clues together.
265
00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:37.920
And then I started to...
266
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:40.120
make breakthroughs.
267
00:27:46.120 --> 00:27:48.280
"Okay, those are the animals
she's killing."
268
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:01.120
So I'm looking at kills. I'm looking
at little marks, diggings in the sand,
269
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:04.520
little changes in the algal patterns
where she's been moving.
270
00:28:05.160 --> 00:28:08.920
And then knowing,
"Okay, this animal is very close now.
271
00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:11.800
It's close.
It's within one or two meters."
272
00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:14.760
And then focusing on that small space.
273
00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:21.800
And then, bang!
274
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:23.960
She's there.
275
00:28:30.280 --> 00:28:34.880
Finally, after looking for her
for a week, day after day,
276
00:28:35.880 --> 00:28:36.960
there she was.
277
00:28:42.840 --> 00:28:43.720
It's like a...
278
00:28:44.440 --> 00:28:48.600
a human friend, like, waving
and saying, "Hi, I'm excited to see you."
279
00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:57.160
And I could feel it,
like from one minute to the next,
280
00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:00.440
"Okay, I trust you. I trust you, human.
281
00:29:01.320 --> 00:29:04.040
And now you can come
into my octopus world."
282
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:15.480
And she's moving towards me.
283
00:29:16.320 --> 00:29:18.280
And my natural instinct is...
284
00:29:19.560 --> 00:29:21.120
to gently back away.
285
00:29:25.120 --> 00:29:28.720
And then I just wanted to keep still,
so I held onto a rock.
286
00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:35.680
She just kept coming...
287
00:29:37.120 --> 00:29:38.800
and then covered my whole hand.
288
00:29:39.600 --> 00:29:41.760
I'd been underwater
for quite a long time,
289
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:46.960
so I just gently pushed for the surface,
thinking she would move off my hand.
290
00:29:49.360 --> 00:29:53.320
But she didn't. She just rode
on my hand right to the surface.
291
00:29:53.680 --> 00:29:57.080
[gentle orchestral music playing]
292
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:14.960
There I was, just staring into the eyes
of this incredible creature.
293
00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:42.720
It was difficult to imagine at first
294
00:30:42.800 --> 00:30:45.680
that she was getting anything
out of the relationship.
295
00:30:45.760 --> 00:30:48.080
Why would a wild animal, doing its thing,
296
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:50.400
get anything out of this
297
00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:52.480
strange human creature visiting?
298
00:30:56.960 --> 00:30:58.960
And this is where it gets interesting.
299
00:31:04.280 --> 00:31:08.160
I think quite stimulating
for that huge intelligence.
300
00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:19.000
Somehow, she realizes
this thing is not dangerous,
301
00:31:19.560 --> 00:31:22.680
so you go
and you interact with this human.
302
00:31:26.040 --> 00:31:30.200
And perhaps it does give you
some strange octopus level of joy.
303
00:31:30.840 --> 00:31:34.080
[delicate piano music playing]
304
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:03.720
When you have that connection
with an animal
305
00:32:03.800 --> 00:32:08.120
and have those experiences,
it's absolutely mind-blowing.
306
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:16.240
There's no greater feeling on earth.
307
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:28.400
The boundaries between her and I
seemed to dissolve.
308
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:33.040
Just the pure magnificence of her.
309
00:33:05.320 --> 00:33:08.120
All I could do at the time
was just think of her.
310
00:33:09.720 --> 00:33:11.320
In the water and on land.
311
00:33:14.600 --> 00:33:17.640
I mean,
it just became a bit of an obsession.
312
00:33:17.720 --> 00:33:20.800
You just want to visit her
every day and see what's going on.
313
00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:22.680
You can't wait to get back in the water.
314
00:33:39.960 --> 00:33:42.400
What goes through her mind?
What's she thinking?
315
00:33:44.120 --> 00:33:47.360
Does she dream? If she dreams,
what does she dream about?
316
00:33:59.800 --> 00:34:05.080
She just ignited my curiosity in a way
that I had not experienced before.
317
00:34:15.120 --> 00:34:17.600
It's very useful to come back home
318
00:34:17.680 --> 00:34:21.040
and try and read
as many scientific papers as possible.
319
00:34:23.640 --> 00:34:25.320
She's a common octopus.
320
00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:28.400
Octopus vulgaris is the scientific name.
321
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:32.440
Two-thirds of her cognition
322
00:34:33.600 --> 00:34:36.200
is actually outside of her brain,
in her arms.
323
00:34:38.240 --> 00:34:42.440
Her entire being
is thinking, feeling, exploring.
324
00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:48.560
She's got 2,000 suckers, and she's using
all of them independently.
325
00:34:49.640 --> 00:34:50.640
How do you do that?
326
00:34:50.720 --> 00:34:52.480
Imagine having 2,000 fingers.
327
00:34:55.520 --> 00:34:58.760
You can compare her intelligence
to a cat or a dog
328
00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:01.680
or even to one of the lower primates.
329
00:35:02.640 --> 00:35:05.920
A mollusk shouldn't be this intelligent.
330
00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:12.200
So many times I'd go and search
through the scientific papers,
331
00:35:12.280 --> 00:35:14.480
looking for the strange thing I'd seen.
332
00:35:15.400 --> 00:35:18.480
And then you'd just come up
absolutely blank. There's nothing.
333
00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:23.760
You're going into a place
that's under-studied,
334
00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:29.320
and, almost on a weekly basis,
you can find out something new to science.
335
00:35:46.280 --> 00:35:50.280
According to the literature, octopus
are supposed to be a nocturnal species.
336
00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:02.840
Now, was she more active at night?
337
00:36:13.520 --> 00:36:15.440
It was a little bit scary in the dark.
338
00:36:15.520 --> 00:36:17.400
[whales moaning]
339
00:36:19.240 --> 00:36:22.400
These incredible sounds
of the humpback whales
340
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:23.760
coming through the water.
341
00:36:29.800 --> 00:36:31.560
You're on hyperalert.
342
00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:37.920
[whales hooting]
343
00:36:49.240 --> 00:36:51.560
I couldn't find her.
She wasn't in her den.
344
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:56.720
I'd kind of given up
and was going back to the shore.
345
00:37:01.880 --> 00:37:05.480
Something just made me
veer slightly to the left.
346
00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:11.320
And there she is...
347
00:37:12.720 --> 00:37:14.960
right in extremely shallow water.
348
00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:19.440
Can't see what she's doing.
349
00:37:27.800 --> 00:37:30.080
These lightning-fast strikes.
350
00:37:35.120 --> 00:37:37.600
Using her arm like this strange weapon.
351
00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:43.960
Just rolling it up
in this fraction of a second.
352
00:37:50.520 --> 00:37:53.240
And I saw her catch three fish like this.
353
00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:56.480
I'd never seen her catching a fish
during the day.
354
00:38:00.080 --> 00:38:03.880
Super dangerous
out in the deeper forest at night,
355
00:38:04.520 --> 00:38:07.520
so this incredibly clever animal
retreats to the shallows,
356
00:38:07.600 --> 00:38:09.960
where it's difficult
for these sharks to get to,
357
00:38:10.040 --> 00:38:13.560
and takes advantage
of all the wonderful food available there.
358
00:38:43.320 --> 00:38:47.280
The first instinct
is to try and scare the sharks away.
359
00:38:48.920 --> 00:38:51.040
But then you realize
360
00:38:51.120 --> 00:38:55.200
that you'd be interfering
with the whole process of the forest.
361
00:39:04.120 --> 00:39:08.880
She was out of the den,
moving around near the edge of the forest.
362
00:39:16.480 --> 00:39:17.600
I noticed...
363
00:39:18.240 --> 00:39:19.120
the shark.
364
00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:30.520
Body was slightly hunched forward
and was following the scent trail.
365
00:39:32.600 --> 00:39:33.680
This is not good.
366
00:39:55.320 --> 00:39:58.280
I think, "Thank God she's safe.
She's right under the rock."
367
00:40:03.040 --> 00:40:05.840
These things are coming
right into that crack.
368
00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:17.080
And the next minute, the shark is
actually clamped down on one of her arms,
369
00:40:17.160 --> 00:40:19.000
doing this terrifying death roll.
370
00:40:31.520 --> 00:40:32.960
And I can clearly see...
371
00:40:34.080 --> 00:40:35.560
her severed arm in its mouth.
372
00:40:40.600 --> 00:40:42.960
[gasps, sighs]
373
00:40:43.040 --> 00:40:45.320
You had that terrible feeling
in your stomach.
374
00:41:04.720 --> 00:41:07.840
And thank God she managed
to get really deep in that crack.
375
00:41:27.320 --> 00:41:32.440
She was moving very badly,
slowly, very weak.
376
00:41:40.760 --> 00:41:43.880
She's bleeding. That smell's in the water.
377
00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:52.200
There's quite a distance to the den.
378
00:41:59.640 --> 00:42:01.560
Are these sharks gonna pitch up again?
379
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:19.440
I thought about helping her back
physically to the den.
380
00:42:28.600 --> 00:42:30.160
But, luckily, I didn't need to.
381
00:42:49.680 --> 00:42:50.800
I didn't know...
382
00:42:52.080 --> 00:42:55.960
what was gonna happen to her or if this
would make her weak and vulnerable,
383
00:42:56.040 --> 00:42:58.760
and they'd finish her off that night.
384
00:43:05.720 --> 00:43:07.280
And I couldn't help feeling...
385
00:43:07.920 --> 00:43:10.120
had I been responsible for this?
386
00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:13.840
Was she out because I was there?
387
00:43:15.680 --> 00:43:17.040
I felt very vulnerable.
388
00:43:17.600 --> 00:43:22.760
As if somehow what happened to her
had happened to me in some strange way.
389
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:35.000
And then this almost felt,
psychologically, like I was...
390
00:43:35.720 --> 00:43:37.600
going through a type of dismembering.
391
00:43:38.240 --> 00:43:42.200
You start thinking about your own death
and your own vulnerability,
392
00:43:42.280 --> 00:43:44.680
worried about your family, your child.
393
00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:52.000
I hadn't been a person that was
overly sentimental towards animals before.
394
00:43:52.720 --> 00:43:54.240
I realized I was changing.
395
00:43:56.680 --> 00:44:00.600
She was teaching me
to become sensitized to the other.
396
00:44:02.520 --> 00:44:04.600
Especially wild creatures.
397
00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:32.840
A scary feeling,
going into the water early the next day.
398
00:44:47.160 --> 00:44:50.600
I was very relieved
that she was alive, breathing.
399
00:44:54.440 --> 00:44:58.520
She's so weak that she can't make
those vibrant colors of a healthy octopus,
400
00:44:58.600 --> 00:45:00.240
and she's just dull and white.
401
00:45:10.720 --> 00:45:13.680
And now I'm worried,
"How is she getting food?"
402
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:21.920
You are crossing a line
403
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:24.160
when you interfere
in the lives of animals.
404
00:45:24.800 --> 00:45:27.600
But I was just too overcome
405
00:45:28.240 --> 00:45:30.520
with my feelings for her.
406
00:45:38.160 --> 00:45:39.720
I don't think it really helped.
407
00:45:42.280 --> 00:45:47.960
And she's right at the back of the den,
you know, just not moving much.
408
00:45:51.240 --> 00:45:54.400
I was just checking every day
to see if she was okay,
409
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:57.880
wondering, "Is this the last day?
Am I not gonna see her?"
410
00:46:14.120 --> 00:46:17.520
The big relief came a week or so later,
411
00:46:18.560 --> 00:46:22.120
and I could see
it had sort of healed over pretty fast.
412
00:46:27.160 --> 00:46:31.440
And then the most amazing thing,
to see this...
413
00:46:32.120 --> 00:46:35.920
tiny little miniature,
perfect miniature arm...
414
00:46:36.720 --> 00:46:37.840
starting to grow back.
415
00:46:46.720 --> 00:46:49.360
And it gave me
a strange sort of confidence
416
00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:54.120
that she can get past
this incredible difficulty.
417
00:46:54.920 --> 00:46:59.080
And I felt, in my life,
I was getting past the difficulties I had.
418
00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:05.320
In this strange way,
our lives were mirroring each other.
419
00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:16.800
My relationship with people,
with humans was changing.
420
00:47:21.120 --> 00:47:25.560
My son, at this stage, was very interested
in everything underwater.
421
00:47:26.720 --> 00:47:30.280
[soothing orchestral music plays]
422
00:47:44.720 --> 00:47:47.200
And every day, I'd tell him the stories.
423
00:47:55.120 --> 00:47:56.760
He'd seen her. He'd met her.
424
00:47:56.840 --> 00:47:58.680
I'd taken him so many times.
425
00:48:04.120 --> 00:48:05.960
The arm becomes pretty functional,
426
00:48:06.520 --> 00:48:07.840
even when it's half grown.
427
00:48:25.080 --> 00:48:28.360
And then, slowly, as the arm grew,
she grew her confidence back.
428
00:48:33.240 --> 00:48:37.160
Eventually, about 100 days later,
that arm had fully regrown.
429
00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:49.480
An amazing feeling to think
that this animal is capable of that
430
00:48:49.560 --> 00:48:52.880
and can withstand such an attack
and fully recover.
431
00:49:17.960 --> 00:49:22.480
After a while, she was just carrying on
with her normal activities,
432
00:49:22.560 --> 00:49:26.680
so I then started a whole new development
433
00:49:27.160 --> 00:49:30.320
of seeing even deeper into her world.
434
00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:39.880
It was a nice, calm, clear day.
435
00:49:41.440 --> 00:49:44.800
She comes around a corner
and spots a crab.
436
00:49:49.160 --> 00:49:50.720
The problem when you're a crab,
437
00:49:51.560 --> 00:49:54.080
you're being now hunted
by a liquid animal.
438
00:49:56.040 --> 00:49:59.360
She can pour herself
through a tiny little crack.
439
00:50:08.320 --> 00:50:10.440
And the crab seems to sense her
440
00:50:10.920 --> 00:50:16.680
and goes and hides
underneath a big, poisonous anemone.
441
00:50:20.320 --> 00:50:22.680
And then she waits and hides.
442
00:50:23.640 --> 00:50:26.640
[tense orchestral music plays]
443
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:50.200
And then the crab thinks,
"Okay, everything's all right,"
444
00:50:50.680 --> 00:50:54.040
and makes the mistake
of leaving that anemone.
445
00:52:12.280 --> 00:52:15.400
[dramatic music playing]
446
00:52:35.640 --> 00:52:36.960
She's quite a messy eater.
447
00:52:37.040 --> 00:52:39.320
Bits going everywhere.
The smell's going out.
448
00:52:40.960 --> 00:52:45.680
And then you just look around,
and you see these brittle stars,
449
00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:49.280
surprisingly fast,
just being drawn to her.
450
00:52:55.800 --> 00:52:58.880
Just a mass of them
sort of overwhelm her,
451
00:52:58.960 --> 00:53:02.200
and she doesn't seem sure of what to do
or how to deal with them.
452
00:53:04.240 --> 00:53:06.920
So I thought,
"Yeah, this is like a real problem now.
453
00:53:07.200 --> 00:53:11.480
She's always gonna have this problem
of brittle stars taking all her food."
454
00:53:16.480 --> 00:53:19.160
Not that long in the future,
455
00:53:19.240 --> 00:53:23.080
she's thought, "Okay,
brittle stars are stealing my food,"
456
00:53:23.160 --> 00:53:26.760
and has this amazing method
of just picking them up with her suckers
457
00:53:26.840 --> 00:53:29.080
and gently just throwing them out the den.
458
00:53:32.440 --> 00:53:34.160
Now she's completely the boss.
459
00:53:43.960 --> 00:53:48.560
She initially adopted the same method
to crab hunting with lobster.
460
00:53:52.320 --> 00:53:53.600
You just suddenly see...
461
00:53:54.640 --> 00:53:56.800
lobsters just shooting out of the reef.
462
00:54:16.520 --> 00:54:19.560
I'm thinking now,
"She's definitely gonna catch this one."
463
00:54:30.680 --> 00:54:32.760
Time and time again, they just evade her.
464
00:54:40.560 --> 00:54:42.840
And then, a couple of weeks later,
465
00:54:43.360 --> 00:54:46.400
watching her coming round the side,
466
00:54:47.600 --> 00:54:49.800
corralling me so that
467
00:54:49.880 --> 00:54:53.360
she can then get between
the lobster and myself.
468
00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:56.680
Using me as part of her hunting strategy.
469
00:55:00.720 --> 00:55:02.520
And instead of that messy lunge...
470
00:55:04.800 --> 00:55:07.160
throwing her web over the top.
471
00:55:10.320 --> 00:55:12.240
And then there's nowhere for it to go.
472
00:55:20.600 --> 00:55:23.000
This is an animal that is strategizing
473
00:55:23.520 --> 00:55:29.440
and working out very quickly
how best to hunt a very tricky prey.
474
00:55:36.920 --> 00:55:39.480
A lot of her intelligence is built
475
00:55:39.960 --> 00:55:42.920
from the sheer number of prey
that she has to catch.
476
00:55:43.640 --> 00:55:45.120
All sorts of animals.
477
00:55:46.520 --> 00:55:50.280
All the mollusks she is capturing,
they're quite easy to catch,
478
00:55:50.880 --> 00:55:53.280
but they've got
these incredibly hard shells.
479
00:55:57.520 --> 00:56:02.200
Now, how the hell
does she kill and eat them?
480
00:56:06.200 --> 00:56:07.960
At the base of all those arms,
481
00:56:08.040 --> 00:56:10.720
there's a drill
that can drill through hard shell
482
00:56:13.440 --> 00:56:16.880
and then drop venom in there,
like a snake,
483
00:56:17.440 --> 00:56:19.800
and see how that mollusk reacts.
484
00:56:23.560 --> 00:56:26.720
But some of these mollusks will only relax
485
00:56:26.800 --> 00:56:30.520
if that drill is precisely
in the apex of the shell,
486
00:56:31.400 --> 00:56:32.600
on the abductor muscle.
487
00:56:36.160 --> 00:56:38.200
She basically has to do geometry
488
00:56:38.280 --> 00:56:43.320
to work out exactly the precise spot
where she needs to drill that shell
489
00:56:43.400 --> 00:56:44.680
in order to get her food.
490
00:56:48.760 --> 00:56:52.120
This is high-level
invertebrate intelligence.
491
00:56:53.080 --> 00:56:58.120
Her ability to learn and remember details.
492
00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:05.080
And it hit me
how she was teaching me so much.
493
00:57:11.240 --> 00:57:15.360
You just can't wait to get up in
the morning, 'cause there's so much to do
494
00:57:15.960 --> 00:57:19.960
to understand every little tiny mark,
495
00:57:20.040 --> 00:57:21.240
every little behavior,
496
00:57:21.320 --> 00:57:24.880
every species and what they're doing,
how they're interacting.
497
00:57:33.400 --> 00:57:36.560
People ask, "Why are you going
to the same place every day?"
498
00:57:37.240 --> 00:57:40.240
But that's when you see
the subtle differences.
499
00:57:40.960 --> 00:57:43.040
And that's when you get to know the wild.
500
00:57:46.240 --> 00:57:49.920
So when these thousands of threads
going off from the octopus
501
00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:52.520
to all the other animals,
predator and prey,
502
00:57:52.600 --> 00:57:54.680
and then this incredible forest,
503
00:57:55.560 --> 00:57:57.200
um, just nurturing all of this.
504
00:58:01.840 --> 00:58:05.360
And now I know how the helmet shell
is connected to the urchin
505
00:58:05.440 --> 00:58:08.040
and how the octopus
is connected to the helmet shell.
506
00:58:08.120 --> 00:58:10.760
And as I draw all these lines,
507
00:58:10.840 --> 00:58:13.440
all these stories
are just being thrown up.
508
00:58:28.600 --> 00:58:30.360
It's almost like the forest mind.
509
00:58:32.080 --> 00:58:36.000
I really could feel it. That big creature.
510
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:40.680
It was thousands of times more awake
and intelligent than I am.
511
00:58:42.920 --> 00:58:47.800
This is like a giant underwater brain
operating over millions of years.
512
00:58:51.040 --> 00:58:53.160
And it just keeps everything in balance.
513
00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:07.560
Everything seemed, at this point...
514
00:59:08.560 --> 00:59:10.360
sort of perfect in the forest.
515
00:59:16.160 --> 00:59:18.120
And, of course, you know...
516
00:59:18.440 --> 00:59:20.360
[chuckling] ...you've forgotten...
517
00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:23.520
those predators are ever present.
518
00:59:43.280 --> 00:59:45.680
[ominous music playing]
519
01:00:06.120 --> 01:00:07.160
Just have this...
520
01:00:08.800 --> 01:00:13.240
burnt in my memory, this, like, huge shark
just suddenly approaching her.
521
01:00:21.440 --> 01:00:24.000
She kept still and tried to hide.
522
01:00:29.840 --> 01:00:34.320
Then you just saw the shark swimming
on the periphery, picking up her scent.
523
01:00:41.960 --> 01:00:44.760
And I thought,
"Oh, no, this is this whole...
524
01:00:46.360 --> 01:00:47.840
nightmare happening again."
525
01:00:47.920 --> 01:00:50.360
[suspenseful music playing]
526
01:01:14.840 --> 01:01:17.480
[tense, propulsive music plays]
527
01:01:46.000 --> 01:01:47.960
She jets up in the canopy,
528
01:01:48.040 --> 01:01:53.320
and she's wrapping many leaves of kelp
tightly around her body
529
01:01:54.520 --> 01:01:55.960
and then just peering out.
530
01:02:21.520 --> 01:02:23.320
All the smell's on the kelp,
531
01:02:23.400 --> 01:02:26.200
so the shark's now biting
and snapping at the kelp.
532
01:02:44.720 --> 01:02:46.160
She's shot out the back.
533
01:02:57.280 --> 01:02:59.280
[heavy breathing]
534
01:03:00.720 --> 01:03:04.200
She just climbs out over a rock,
leaves the water, and I was like...
535
01:03:09.080 --> 01:03:12.680
I just, you know...
almost can't believe my eyes.
536
01:03:17.120 --> 01:03:20.320
But the problem is, of course,
she's gotta come back.
537
01:03:29.240 --> 01:03:32.200
On the other side,
the shark picks up her scent again.
538
01:03:33.320 --> 01:03:35.280
And this crazy chase is on.
539
01:03:36.720 --> 01:03:39.160
[suspenseful music playing]
540
01:04:07.840 --> 01:04:09.840
And then, I see her,
541
01:04:10.880 --> 01:04:13.040
in a very quick movement,
542
01:04:14.080 --> 01:04:18.120
picking up maybe close
to 100 shells and stones...
543
01:04:20.920 --> 01:04:23.320
and then folding her arms
544
01:04:23.640 --> 01:04:25.120
over her vulnerable head.
545
01:04:26.800 --> 01:04:27.960
And in that moment,
546
01:04:28.600 --> 01:04:31.360
I realized,
"This is this crazy thing I saw...
547
01:04:32.440 --> 01:04:33.320
so long ago."
548
01:04:59.840 --> 01:05:01.960
Next minute, the shark grabs her.
549
01:05:04.880 --> 01:05:06.360
[suspenseful music playing]
550
01:05:24.520 --> 01:05:25.840
But I had to breathe.
551
01:05:26.880 --> 01:05:28.920
Rush to the surface as fast as you can.
552
01:05:31.760 --> 01:05:33.160
Straight back down again.
553
01:05:38.840 --> 01:05:41.600
And it's like,
"Okay, now, this is too crazy."
554
01:05:42.480 --> 01:05:47.720
Somehow she's managed to maneuver herself
into the least dangerous place,
555
01:05:47.800 --> 01:05:49.560
and that's on the shark's back.
556
01:06:01.240 --> 01:06:04.160
The shark tries to shake her off
and is swimming away.
557
01:06:06.840 --> 01:06:08.600
Takes a few seconds to figure out,
558
01:06:09.120 --> 01:06:10.760
"What the hell's going on here?"
559
01:06:10.840 --> 01:06:12.560
But you can immediately tell
560
01:06:13.120 --> 01:06:14.840
she's now got the upper hand.
561
01:06:14.920 --> 01:06:16.920
[mellow music playing]
562
01:06:27.920 --> 01:06:30.720
As the shark goes near
some of the thick kelp...
563
01:06:32.920 --> 01:06:34.640
she just pushes off the back...
564
01:06:46.400 --> 01:06:48.200
drops the remaining shells
565
01:06:49.200 --> 01:06:50.400
and jets away.
566
01:06:56.600 --> 01:06:59.600
And the shark,
it's just been completely outwitted.
567
01:07:32.800 --> 01:07:35.720
The shark comes, does one pass,
568
01:07:35.800 --> 01:07:38.760
but she's completely safe.
There's nothing it can do.
569
01:07:39.440 --> 01:07:40.400
And it leaves.
570
01:07:45.720 --> 01:07:51.000
How she can think that quickly
and make those life-and-death decisions,
571
01:07:51.080 --> 01:07:55.080
uh, it's just, yeah,
pretty, pretty incredible.
572
01:08:18.360 --> 01:08:22.680
I was around for a good
80 percent of her life.
573
01:08:24.440 --> 01:08:27.440
Each moment is so precious
because it's so short.
574
01:08:31.280 --> 01:08:33.040
There was this one incredible day.
575
01:08:34.080 --> 01:08:35.960
A big shoal of dream fish.
576
01:08:37.720 --> 01:08:39.160
Fairly shallow water.
577
01:08:41.560 --> 01:08:43.040
Suddenly, she's...
578
01:08:43.840 --> 01:08:46.080
reaching up for the surface like that.
579
01:08:51.920 --> 01:08:53.080
Initially, I thought...
580
01:08:54.120 --> 01:08:55.400
"She's hunting the fish."
581
01:09:02.240 --> 01:09:03.880
Then I was like, "Hold on.
582
01:09:04.360 --> 01:09:07.240
When she hunts, she's strategic,
and she's like...
583
01:09:07.840 --> 01:09:09.040
focused.
584
01:09:14.920 --> 01:09:17.600
This behavior
doesn't feel predatory to me."
585
01:09:21.640 --> 01:09:24.520
It took a long time
to actually, like, process it.
586
01:09:26.520 --> 01:09:28.280
But I couldn't help thinking,
587
01:09:28.360 --> 01:09:30.280
"She's playing with the fish."
588
01:09:30.360 --> 01:09:34.080
[gentle piano music plays]
589
01:09:45.040 --> 01:09:47.960
You see play often in social animals.
590
01:09:48.040 --> 01:09:53.000
Here's a highly antisocial animal
playing with fish.
591
01:09:56.480 --> 01:09:58.600
It takes that animal to a different level.
592
01:10:10.400 --> 01:10:12.880
Oh, then she completely
lost interest in the fish,
593
01:10:13.960 --> 01:10:15.000
rushed over...
594
01:10:18.000 --> 01:10:19.040
grabbed hold of me.
595
01:10:30.920 --> 01:10:34.400
And that was the last time
we had physical contact.
596
01:10:53.680 --> 01:10:55.880
[thunder rumbling]
597
01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:06.360
If I think back,
598
01:11:07.440 --> 01:11:10.520
and I remember it was a very rough day,
very turbulent.
599
01:11:17.720 --> 01:11:18.880
Sediment everywhere.
600
01:11:22.440 --> 01:11:23.680
Go down and whoa,
601
01:11:24.560 --> 01:11:27.080
there's another big octopus
right next to her.
602
01:11:34.520 --> 01:11:38.000
It's very, very rare to see
two octopus close together.
603
01:11:40.560 --> 01:11:42.120
"Oh, my God, what's going on?"
604
01:11:48.360 --> 01:11:51.800
And then seeing that both animals
are pretty relaxed
605
01:11:51.880 --> 01:11:55.120
and realizing,
"Okay, and then the mating is beginning."
606
01:12:07.080 --> 01:12:12.280
By this stage, I knew quite well
the stages of an octopus's life.
607
01:12:12.840 --> 01:12:16.800
So while I was very excited
that this mating was beginning,
608
01:12:17.400 --> 01:12:18.520
there was a sort of...
609
01:12:19.360 --> 01:12:22.200
this dread in the bottom of my stomach.
610
01:12:31.400 --> 01:12:33.120
She wasn't coming out of that den.
611
01:12:33.600 --> 01:12:37.480
There was no more feeding,
no more hunting.
612
01:12:39.120 --> 01:12:43.280
A huge part of her body
is actually given to those eggs.
613
01:12:43.360 --> 01:12:48.160
So she drops in weight, and she loses
an enormous amount of strength.
614
01:12:53.040 --> 01:12:55.720
The eggs are laid right in the back,
in the dark.
615
01:12:56.280 --> 01:12:57.760
It's impossible to see them.
616
01:13:04.560 --> 01:13:06.920
I just keep going every day
and just check.
617
01:13:09.120 --> 01:13:13.200
She's oxygenating the eggs
with her siphon, looking after them.
618
01:13:14.440 --> 01:13:16.320
She's just slowly dying
619
01:13:16.400 --> 01:13:21.000
and timing her death exactly
for the hatching of those eggs.
620
01:13:27.040 --> 01:13:29.680
I mean, it struck home so hard for me.
621
01:13:32.000 --> 01:13:35.920
Here's an invertebrate,
essentially a mollusk,
622
01:13:36.000 --> 01:13:38.080
sacrificing her own life
623
01:13:38.720 --> 01:13:39.800
for her young.
624
01:13:52.400 --> 01:13:54.720
All those eggs hatched.
625
01:13:55.240 --> 01:13:59.120
They're tiny,
and they go into the water column.
626
01:13:59.760 --> 01:14:01.360
Hundreds of thousands of them.
627
01:14:07.720 --> 01:14:12.600
And the next thing I saw,
she's washed out the den, barely alive.
628
01:14:16.600 --> 01:14:18.960
[gentle, moving music playing]
629
01:14:19.040 --> 01:14:21.240
And the fish, you know, feeding on her.
630
01:14:21.320 --> 01:14:23.840
A lot of the scavengers
coming to feed on her.
631
01:14:27.080 --> 01:14:28.640
It was just heartbreaking.
632
01:14:35.520 --> 01:14:38.520
A part of me just wanted to hold her
and chase them away.
633
01:14:40.200 --> 01:14:41.440
But I didn't do that.
634
01:14:55.320 --> 01:14:56.360
The next day...
635
01:14:58.200 --> 01:14:59.160
a big shark came...
636
01:15:12.040 --> 01:15:16.960
and just took her away,
you know, into the misty forest.
637
01:15:30.600 --> 01:15:34.160
Often, I go to the place of her main den.
638
01:15:36.200 --> 01:15:37.200
[sighs]
639
01:15:39.600 --> 01:15:42.320
And I just float above it
and feel her there.
640
01:15:44.560 --> 01:15:46.320
[choking up] Of course I miss her.
641
01:15:48.720 --> 01:15:49.600
Um...
642
01:15:54.240 --> 01:15:55.120
[sighs]
643
01:15:59.000 --> 01:15:59.920
But, um...
644
01:16:05.040 --> 01:16:07.560
I mean, in some crazy way,
it was a relief.
645
01:16:10.840 --> 01:16:16.760
It was a relief, because the intensity
of going every day and tracking her, um...
646
01:16:18.200 --> 01:16:20.640
and trying to capture, it was...
647
01:16:22.360 --> 01:16:23.480
It was tough in a way.
648
01:16:23.560 --> 01:16:25.640
I mean, I sort of slept, dreamt...
649
01:16:27.560 --> 01:16:28.520
this animal.
650
01:16:28.600 --> 01:16:30.440
I was... You know, I was...
651
01:16:32.840 --> 01:16:35.080
in my mind, thinking like an octopus.
652
01:16:35.160 --> 01:16:38.320
And... and it was all so taxing, in a way.
653
01:16:39.120 --> 01:16:40.200
Um...
654
01:16:44.280 --> 01:16:48.200
[delicate, reflective music plays]
655
01:16:51.720 --> 01:16:53.200
But underneath that,
656
01:16:53.760 --> 01:16:56.560
this incredible pride for this animal
657
01:16:56.640 --> 01:17:01.160
that's been through impossible odds
to get to this place.
658
01:17:03.920 --> 01:17:06.000
I mean, an unimaginable life.
659
01:17:25.040 --> 01:17:28.240
[ethereal vocal music playing]
660
01:17:31.120 --> 01:17:36.160
One of the most exciting things
ever in my life, taking my son,
661
01:17:37.160 --> 01:17:38.960
walking along the shore
662
01:17:39.040 --> 01:17:42.200
and just showing him
the... the wonders of nature
663
01:17:42.280 --> 01:17:43.360
and the details
664
01:17:43.440 --> 01:17:45.120
and the intricacies.
665
01:17:50.560 --> 01:17:54.120
I was getting so much from the wild,
and I could actually now give.
666
01:17:56.880 --> 01:17:59.120
I had so much energy to give back.
667
01:18:06.320 --> 01:18:10.560
He's like a little marine biologist now.
He knows so much.
668
01:18:16.160 --> 01:18:18.040
And very powerful swimmer.
669
01:18:21.640 --> 01:18:25.280
And as he gets older,
he seems to want to do it more and more.
670
01:18:35.520 --> 01:18:36.880
To see that develop,
671
01:18:37.600 --> 01:18:42.520
a strong sense of himself...
672
01:18:45.920 --> 01:18:47.720
an incredible confidence,
673
01:18:49.280 --> 01:18:51.040
but the most important thing,
674
01:18:51.600 --> 01:18:52.720
a gentleness.
675
01:18:53.920 --> 01:18:55.400
And I think that's the thing
676
01:18:55.480 --> 01:18:59.160
that thousands of hours in nature
can teach a child.
677
01:19:08.040 --> 01:19:10.320
A few months later, after she'd died,
678
01:19:10.400 --> 01:19:15.080
he actually found
this tiny little octopus.
679
01:19:18.400 --> 01:19:20.440
[gentle piano music playing]
680
01:19:20.520 --> 01:19:23.160
It's very rare
to see an animal that small.
681
01:19:27.640 --> 01:19:31.880
They have up to half a million young.
A handful survive.
682
01:19:32.560 --> 01:19:36.800
So it's a pretty tough road
they have to walk.
683
01:19:36.880 --> 01:19:39.440
But that's their strategy,
live fast and die young.
684
01:19:45.480 --> 01:19:48.880
We kind of imagined
that it might be one of her young.
685
01:19:50.120 --> 01:19:52.440
It was kind of the right size,
the right time.
686
01:19:56.920 --> 01:20:00.120
And it was joyous.
It was like, "Well, there she is."
687
01:20:25.240 --> 01:20:27.040
She'd made me realize
688
01:20:27.880 --> 01:20:30.480
just how precious wild places are.
689
01:20:40.320 --> 01:20:42.000
You go into that water...
690
01:20:44.520 --> 01:20:46.760
and it's extremely liberating.
691
01:20:46.840 --> 01:20:47.800
All your...
692
01:20:48.320 --> 01:20:52.360
worries and problems
and life drama just dissolve.
693
01:21:02.680 --> 01:21:06.120
You slowly start to care
about all the animals,
694
01:21:06.200 --> 01:21:08.440
even the tiniest little animals.
695
01:21:13.400 --> 01:21:17.040
You realize
that every one is very important.
696
01:21:21.800 --> 01:21:25.280
To sense how vulnerable
these wild animals' lives are,
697
01:21:26.840 --> 01:21:30.240
and actually, then how vulnerable
all our lives on this planet are.
698
01:21:36.640 --> 01:21:42.080
My relationship with the sea forest
and its creatures deepens...
699
01:21:44.880 --> 01:21:47.320
week after month after year after year.
700
01:21:52.400 --> 01:21:55.840
You're in touch with this wild place,
and it's speaking to you.
701
01:21:57.600 --> 01:21:59.000
Its language is visible.
702
01:22:05.920 --> 01:22:09.320
[orchestral music grows]
703
01:22:14.040 --> 01:22:16.360
I fell in love with her
704
01:22:16.440 --> 01:22:20.720
but also with that amazing wildness
that she represented
705
01:22:20.800 --> 01:22:22.880
and... and how that changed me.
706
01:22:37.840 --> 01:22:40.680
What she taught me was to feel...
707
01:22:41.320 --> 01:22:44.520
that you're part of this place,
not a visitor.
708
01:22:45.320 --> 01:22:46.880
That's a huge difference.
709
01:23:13.480 --> 01:23:16.680
[ethereal vocal music playing]
710
01:23:52.600 --> 01:23:55.280
[gentle piano playing]