CURWOOD: Next week on Living on Earth, underwater explorer Craig Foster from the Academy Award-winning documentary "My Octopus Teacher" on the unforgettable moment when an octopus first reached out to him and made contact.

FOSTER: They have a natural curiosity. So, their whole lives are balanced between this fear and curiosity. And they're almost like a cat -- you know how curious cats are, they just can't help themselves. And when she's putting that one arm out like that, she's also, all her other arms are attached very strongly to the den. So, she wants to know, she wants to feel, she wants to taste, because they, you know, they can taste with the suckers as well. But she's being very careful. She's putting one arm out and she just can't help herself: What is this strange creature here? What does this thing smell like, taste like? And it's curiosity -- it's sheer curiosity.

CURWOOD: That and other wonders of nature including cuttlefish with an exquisite ability to mimic crabs and shells, and a rare encounter with a Cape clawless otter. The intelligence of wild things in the Great African Sea Forest, next time on Living on Earth.