When it comes to cool animals, I've got to say the octopus is hard to beat.

They have three hearts. Blue blood can grow back their arms, squirt ink to deter predators, and being boneless, they can squeeze

in and out of the smallest spaces.

Still not impressed?

Well, when it comes to trickery and deceit, these are the masters of disguise.

They can not only change their color, but also the texture of their skin to match their surroundings. I mean how clever is that?

When they're done with swimming and want to take a break, they just settle down and without

even waving a magic wand, they can change their skin and simply disappear.

Then when their unsuspecting prey passes by, they can pounce with the greatest of ease. In genius. But also, kind of

creepy. I mean, imagine if we could do the same thing. change our clothing to match our surroundings.

It would be a pretty cool trick to play at a party, but in a world of increasingly

sophisticated surveillance and counter surveillance, the race to unlock the secrets of the octopus could have very high stakes indeed.

I'm Patrick I and this is 30 animals that made Us Smarter from the BBC World Service, a brand new

podcast that investigates the amazing things that animals have taught us.

I really hope you've enjoyed the first episode about the Kingfisher and the bullet train.

Thank you so much for all of your comments so far.

And because this is a new podcast, remember I really want to know what you think.

Please help me spread the word and where you can leave ratings and reviews and on

social media the hashtag is 30 animals. So let's crack on because in this number two, Octopus and

camouflage we'll be hearing how several pods that's Octopus, squid and cuttlefish to you and me are inspiring some very impressive

camouflage and I mean really impressive.

Cephalopod literally means head foot in Greek and refers to how these animals are basically a head attached to a foot, a mass of sucker bearing tentacles.

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