The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Tree octopuses have inspired activists, writers, artists, and researchers across generations. Some speak out specifically on the plight of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and their kin. Some incorporate fictionalized versions of tree octopuses into their works -- either as friends or as enemies. Others have simply reported on tree octopuses for the edification of the public. Here are some noteworthy examples of tree octopuses in the media:

Literature:

• The Procession of Mollusks (2008), a novel by Eric E. Olson, touches on the native uses of tree octopuses. (Review)

• Nation (2008), a tropical alternate-history young-adult novel by Terry Pratchett, includes an island that's home to tree-climbing octopuses (Octopus arbori) that are hard to pull off if they land on your head (and never let them think you're a coconut, because they have sharp beaks.)

• The Other Side of the Island (2008), an eco-dystopic young-adult novel by Allegra Goodman, has a tree octopus named Octavio who helps the protagonist, Honor, as she learns the truth about The Corporation and its sky projections.

• The Book of Summer (2008), a Christian-military-sci-fi novel by James F. David, takes place on the newly colonized planet America, where outcast Rey Mann adopts an orphaned baby tree-octopus (which he names Ollie) after he kills its mother.

• Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love (2008), a children's novel by Patricia Martin, mentions Lulu's father being off to save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, which is described as "a worthy crusade and a worthy cause".

• Minnie & Moo and the Seven Wonders of the World (2003), an illustrated childrens book by Denys Cazet, is about two cows trying to raise money to save their farm by giving tours of seven wonders, including a Forest Octopus they solicit donations to save.

• "The Hour that Stretches" (from Stalking the Nightmare, 1982), a short story by Harlan Ellison, includes a plot synopsis involving the Chesapeake Tree-Climbing Octopus, described thusly:

  This retiring and rarely glimpsed creature lives in the many quiet estuaries of the Chesapeake system. Early each morning the octopus leaves the water and crawls up the trunk of a shoreside tree. It makes its way precariously onto a branch overhanging the water, where it waits for its prey to pass underneath.

• "The Octopus Cycle" (Amazing Stories, May 1928), by Irvin Lester & Fletcher Pratt, is a pulp story about towering octopuses that walk out of the sea into the jungles of Madagascar, from which they terrorize the locals -- and potentially the world. (Cover from Poulpe Pulps):

  
  Click to enlarge...

• Drome (1927), a pulp adventure by John Martin Leahy, takes place in a cavernous realm miles below Mount Rainier with a primeval forest inhabited by deadly tree-octopuses.

Non-Fiction:

• Weird Washington (2008), a book on Washington State oddities, has an article on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

• Words of the Lagoon (1981), an ethnographic book about Palau by R.E. Johannes, reports on arboreal octopuses that give birth in the islands' mangroves.

• Life Among the Stars (1974), a science book on the possibility of extraterrestrial life by V.A. Firsoff, includes speculation that an arboreal octopus might one day become a spacefaring species.

• The Bella Coola Indians (1948), an ethnographic book about the Nuxalk of British Columbia by Thomas Forsyth McIlwraith, reports on octopuses that forage in spruce trees for pitch, which they enjoy chewing like gum. (More on this topic...)

Visual Arts:

• Tree-dwelling octopus triptych by three different artists (2008).

• "Darwin claims another tree dwelling octopus" by Ben Lawson.

• "Strange Tales of the Pacific Northwest. Episode 34: 20,000 Legs Under the Trees" (2007)

  

  A one-page graphic-novel drawn by Lukas Ketner and written by Ryan Brown about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus' origins and struggles with cougar predation. It appeared in issue #25 of The Bear Deluxe Magazine published by Orlo, a nonprofit organization using the creative arts to explore environmental issues.

Culinary Arts:

• Tree Octopus Bento: Karetchko raises delicious awareness with a tree octopus rendered in string cheese.

Film:

• IMPOLEX (2009), an independent film about a US soldier on a mission to recover German V-2 rockets at the end of World War II who encounters, among other things, a talking European forest octopus.

Video:

• The Tree Octopus - A Journey, a documentary following a trek into the Olympic National Forest in search of tree octopuses:

• La Pieuvre Des Arbres. An edited selection of scenes showing a tree octopus from Jean Painlevé's 1928 short surrealist documentary, La Pieuvre (uploaded by ZPi):

• The Internet is filled with too many tree octopus videos to embed:

  • A flashback video by an Australian kid who has opened some sort of spatial rift between Australia and Gorst resulting in him being attacked in his home by a gun-wielding tree octopus.
  • Tree Octopus Attack! is a short octoploitation flick.
  • PSA: Tree Octopus is a simple but effective animated PSA.
  • PSA: Tree Octopus and Swine Flu (Note: At the time this PSA was released, researchers feared the Sasquatch had gone extinct due to the swine flu pandemic. Turns out they were all just hiding from the researchers. All is well with Sasquatch. Please remain calm.)
  • Watch Dingo McGee track the wiley Tree-Climbing Octopus.
  • Watch an episode of the Carry Springer Show (like the Jerry Springer show, only in someone's living room) tackling the plight of the tree octopus.
  • Watch the short film Traci Bogart, PI: Hunt for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (there's also a trailer and blooper reel).
  • Watch a lesson on "How to be a Tree Octopus".
  • Watch the video audition of a young Steve Irwan fan as he goes in search of tree octopuses and Sasquatch.
  • Watch 8 Legs of Awesome, a short deconstructionist movie about capturing a tree octopus and feeding it chickens on a farm. (They also have a trailer.)
  • Watch a Dutch animal documentary about the tiger, panda bear, and mysterious tree octopus.
  • Someone (not me) started a Save The Tree Octopus! YouTube channel that includes a touching tribute video, a homeless Tree Octopus created in Spore, and an actual video of an elusive Tree Octopus:

    There's also one purporting to show a tree octopus hatching from an egg, but I'm not convinced.

• In the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode "Trouble in Trolla" (1984), He-Man has the squeeze put on him by a giant, blue tree-octopus on Trolla, home-planet of Orko (@11:03).

Miscellaneous Pop-Culture:

• Stormwrack: Mastering the Perils of Wind and Wave (2005), an environment supplement for playing Dungeons & Dragons in sea and storm by Richard Baker, Joseph Carriker, & Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes, has a footnote on "Terrestrially Adapted Aquatic Creatures" that suggests Dungeon Masters include relatively harmless creatures such as arboreal octopi, adding "the tree-climbing octopus might be after coconuts and only occasionally try to crack a character's head by mistake".

• In the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" (i.e. stuff not in the movies), the nexu is a predator that feeds on stout bark rats and arboreal octopi in the Indonan forests of planet Cholganna.

• Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin's Uplift Universe notes that "ancient records hint that proto-Puber were arboreal, a sort of tree-dwelling octopus."

• A never-produced mid-1990s Tremors TV series was to include an episode with an arboreal octopus preying on people in the woods.