Sklenená nádoba

Na druhé ráno priniesla Chiara k nádrži s Pastou sklenenú nádobu. Nádoba mala skrutkovací uzáver. Vo vnútri nádoby bol jediný živý krab.

On the second morning, Chiara brought a glass jar to Pasta's tank. The jar had a screw lid. Inside the jar was a single live crab.

Chiara na chvíľu podržala nádobu nad vodou. Pasta sledovala. Chobotnica sedela v tom istom rohu už štyridsať minút. Teraz sa jej oko zaostrilo. Jeden chápadlo sa rozvinulo z klbka a natiahlo sa pozdĺž strany nádrže.

Chiara held the jar above the water for a moment. Pasta watched. The octopus had been sitting in the same corner for forty minutes. Now her eye sharpened. One arm uncurled from the coil and stretched along the side of the tank.

Chiara pustila nádobu do vody. Pomaly sa ponárala. Pasta sa nevrhla. Chobotnice, ako Chiara povedala Polly, zvyčajne nie sú vrhači. Najprv sú pozorovatelia.

Chiara dropped the jar into the water. It sank slowly. Pasta did not lunge. Octopuses, Chiara had told Polly, are not generally lungers. They are observers first.

Polly sa usadila na okraj nádrže s okuliarmi naklonenými k vode. Videla kraba vo vnútri nádoby, ako sa škrabe proti sklu. Pasta natiahla jedno chápadlo a dotkla sa nádoby. Jej koža bola pokrytá prísavkami až po špičku toho chápadla. Prísavky mali možno dvesto senzorických buniek každá. "Viac ako tvoj jazyk," povedala Chiara potichu. "Chápadlo chobotnice ochutná všetko, čoho sa dotkne."

Polly perched on the tank rim with her glasses tilted at the water. She could see the crab inside the jar, scuttling against the glass. Pasta moved one arm out and touched the jar. Her skin was suckered all the way to the tip of that arm. The suckers had perhaps two hundred sensory cells each. "More than your tongue," Chiara said quietly. "An octopus arm tastes everything it touches."

Pasta uchopila nádobu druhým chápadlom. Dve chápadlá ju pomaly otáčali. Polly teraz videla tretie chápadlo, ako sa dostáva okolo zadnej časti nádoby a skúma uzáver.

Pasta gathered the jar with a second arm. The two arms turned it, slowly. Polly could see the third arm coming around the back of the jar now, exploring the lid.

Toto je dobre zdokumentované správanie. Chobotnice otvárajú skrutkovacie nádoby vo výskumných laboratóriách už od 50. rokov 20. storočia. Niektoré to dokážu za menej ako minútu. Keď chobotnica prvýkrát narazí na nádobu, zvyčajne jej trvá desať až pätnásť minút skúmania. Nejde o riešenie problému tak, ako by to robil človek. Nemyslia v krokoch. Nechávajú prísavky cítiť závity a potom otáčajú uzáver tak, ako ich závity vedú.

This is a well-documented behaviour. Octopuses have been opening screw-top jars in research labs since the 1950s. Some can do it in less than a minute. The first time a new octopus encounters a jar, it usually takes ten or fifteen minutes of exploration. They are not solving the problem the way a human would. They are not thinking in steps. They are letting the suckers feel the threads and then turning the lid the way the threads pull.

Pasta otočila uzáver o pol otáčky. Potom ešte jednu. Uzáver sa uvoľnil. Krab vo vnútri, cítiac zmenu tlaku vody, vyrazil z nádoby do otvorenej vody.

Pasta turned the lid one half-rotation. Then another. The lid popped free. The crab inside, sensing the change in water pressure, scrambled out of the jar and into the open water.

Nedostal sa ďaleko. Pastino štvrté chápadlo už bolo zakrivené pri ústí nádoby. Krab zmizol v mäkkom bielom otvore, ktorý si Polly po chvíli uvedomila, že je zobák chobotnice. Krab vydal malé kliknutie. Potom nič.

It did not get far. Pasta's fourth arm was already curled at the jar's mouth. The crab vanished into a soft white opening that Polly realised, after a moment, was the octopus's beak. The crab made a small click. Then nothing.

Nádoba klesla prázdna na dno nádrže.

The jar sank empty to the bottom of the tank.

Chiara niečo napísala na klipboard. "Tri minúty štyridsaťdva sekúnd," povedala. "Zrýchľuje sa. Prvýkrát, keď sme jej dali nádobu, trvalo jej to jedenásť minút."

Chiara wrote something on a clipboard. "Three minutes forty-two seconds," she said. "She is getting fast. The first time we gave her a jar, it took her eleven minutes."

Polly naklonila svoju ryšavú hlavu k Paste. Chobotnica sa už vracala do klbka rúry. Jej chápadlá sa obtočili okolo nej samej. Jej oko, na jeden dlhý okamih, sa stretlo s Pollyiným. Potom sa pomaly zavrelo.

Polly tilted her red head at Pasta. The octopus was already returning to the coil of pipe. Her arms wrapped themselves around herself. Her eye, for one long moment, met Polly's. Then it closed slowly.

Je ťažké preceňovať, aké zvláštne je chobotnica, povedala Chiara, keď si zbierala veci. Sú to mäkkýše. Sú bližšie príbuzné slimákovi než čomukoľvek s chrbticou. Majú tri srdcia. Ich krv je modrá, pretože prenáša kyslík pomocou medi namiesto železa. Vo voľnej prírode žijú len asi tri až päť rokov. Pasta už mala dva. Mala možno dva roky života pred sebou, bez ohľadu na to, ako dobrá sa stane v otváraní nádob.

It is hard to overstate how strange an octopus is, Chiara said, gathering her things. They are mollusks. They are more closely related to a snail than to anything with a backbone. They have three hearts. Their blood is blue, because it carries oxygen using copper instead of iron. They live, in the wild, only about three to five years. Pasta was already two. She had perhaps two years of life left, no matter how good she got at the jar.

V tom čase, povedala Chiara, sa naučí všetko, čo sa kedy naučí.

In that time, Chiara had said, she would learn everything she would ever know.