Octopuses Can Squeeze Through Tiny Gaps — and Scientists Now Know How They Do It

Octopuses are known for their extraordinary abilities, such as changing color, manipulating tools, and recognizing human faces. They can also squeeze through incredibly small openings, defying the laws of physics. Researchers from the National University of Singapore have now uncovered how they manage to do this.

The study, published in Experimental Biology, involved placing three common octopuses (Octopus vulgaris) and four Mayan octopuses (Octopus maya) in Perspex boxes with holes tailored to each octopus. The hole size was based on the distance between the octopuses' eyes, which the researchers believed could help identify the smallest hole the octopus can squeeze through.

The results were surprising. While larger holes allowed the octopuses to use a four-step strategy, involving their arms, head, and mantle, smaller holes required a different approach. In these cases, the octopus would push the remaining arms, head, and mantle through the gap before extending the head and mantle. Interestingly, the common octopus managed both hole sizes successfully, while the Mayan octopuses struggled with the smaller ones.

The researchers suggested that the octopuses' adaptability to different hole sizes could have implications for the development of soft-bodied robots. These robots, inspired by the octopus, could provide an alternative to conventional search-and-rescue or exploration robots with slender snake-like bodies. However, the researchers noted that more refinement is needed to fully understand the octopuses' arm-use preferences.