Krak, ki zna okušati

Iztegnite roko in se česa dotaknite: začutili boste obliko in površino. Hobotnica, ki iztegne krak, počne nekaj bolj nenavadnega. To, česar se dotakne, v hipu okusi, in sicer s stotinami priseskov na vsakem kraku.

Reach out and touch something, and you feel its shape and texture. An octopus reaching out does something stranger: it tastes what it touches, instantly, through hundreds of suckers lining each arm.

Znanstveniki so pred kratkim odkrili, da priseski hobotnice vsebujejo posebne receptorje, kakršnih ni pri nobeni drugi živali, narejene za zaznavanje snovi, ki se v vodi ne topijo. Tako lahko hobotnica potisne krak v temno razpoko med skalami in takoj ve, kaj se skriva v njej, hrana, nevarnost ali čisto nič, ne da bi to morala videti ali najprej potegniti ven.

Scientists recently discovered that octopus suckers contain special receptors unlike anything found in other animals, built to sense chemicals that do not dissolve in water. This lets an octopus slide an arm into a dark crack in the rocks and immediately know what is hiding there, food, danger, or nothing at all, without needing to see it or pull it out first.

To je povsem drugačen način doživljanja sveta, dotik in okus, združena v en sam čut, razpršen po osmih samostojnih krakih. Za hobotnico, ki lovi v popolni temi, je taka kombinacija morda uporabnejša, kot bi kdaj lahko bile oči.

It is a completely different way of experiencing the world, touch and taste combined into a single sense, spread across eight independent arms. For an octopus hunting in total darkness, that combination might be more useful than eyes ever could be.