Hey there, friends, and welcome to episode 246 of Just the Zoo of Us.

In this week's episode, I am joined by Naturalist and author of Secrets of the Octopus, Cy Montgomery,

for a look into the life and mind of some of the ocean's most mystifying aliens.

We discuss an octopus's least favorite texture, what happens when an arm goes rogue, the underwater city of Octopolis, how to make interspecies friendships, and so much more.

Just the Zoo of Us presents the Giant Pacific Octopus with Cy Montgomery. The Hello everybody. It's Ellen Weatherford with your favorite animal review podcast, Just the Zoo of Us.

And I am so excited and a little bit

starstruck this week to have a brand new friend talking about a really fascinating animal that I know

a lot of you all can't wait to hear about. This week we're talking with Cy Montgomery. Can you say

hi? Hi, everybody. Your name, I think, is going to be very familiar to a lot of

people, especially people who read a lot of books about nature and wildlife, because you are a

naturalist and an author that writes a lot about the natural world around us. So for people

listening who are just now getting to know you,

could you introduce yourself a little bit to our friends? What got you into the work that you do

writing about animals? Oh, man, I was interested in animals from before I could speak.

When I was less than two years old, I was born in Germany and my parents took me to the

Frankfurt Zoo and I was just a toddler and I broke free of my parents and when they found me

again, they discovered that I was in the hippop pen with...

Oh, oh no!

Oh, you know, I always knew that animals were my people. And as soon as I could actually speak,

I informed my parents I was actually a horse. Love it. And my mother took me to the pediatrician

to see what was wrong with me. And he said, oh, she'll grow out of it, which I did when I realized

that actually I was a dog. Only a minor correction. Only a minor correction.

...