The octopuses changed the plan when the hole got smaller.

Reuters reported Friday that scientists filmed three sub-adult common octopuses squeezing through an opening that could be made smaller. When the hole was wider than the distance between the eyes, the animals used three steps: one arm probed, more arms went through, and the arms already through pulled the rest of the arms, the head, and the mantle. When the hole was narrower, they used four steps. The paper is in the Journal of Experimental Biology. The dispatch is Friday. The film is not.

Wenci Xin, of the National University of Singapore’s Soft Robotics Lab, told Reuters: “At the beginning, we expected the animals to use the same strategy. ... We were surprised when we found that the strategy changed.” He also said: “We explored whether there is a general pattern in how these animals perform this behavior that could be applied to robots in the future.” Michael Kuba, a biologist at the University of Naples Federico II and a co-author, said the octopuses use the tactile sense on the arms to investigate the opening. Friday’s science note, the fall of the Swift satellite, stays filed.

We were surprised when we found that the strategy changed.

The photograph is July 17, 2025, in Vienna. One arm comes through the opening of a vessel. Michael Kuba, handout via Reuters. The rest of the animal is not in the frame. It is not Saturday.