When Alex Schnell was around 5 years old, playing in rock pools around Clovelly beach in Sydney, she had an alien encounter. 

The creature in the shallow water in front of her was a little octopus and unlike anything Alex had seen before, and instead of darting off in fear like a fish might, to Alex it felt like the octopus was genuinely curious in her.

Alex has now spent many hours observing them in the ocean, and has discovered extraordinary things about octopus intelligence, personalities, feats of memory, and mating behaviours.

The episode of Conversations explores animal intelligence, octopus, giant cuttlefish, scuba diving, animal memory and cognitive skills, South America, prisons in Chile, National Geographic, Nat Geo, Paul Rudd, nature doco, documentary, Disney, how smart are octopus.

Further information

You can stream Dr Alex Schnell's nature documentary, Secrets of the Octopus, at National Geographic Online.