12 Days of Inkfish, Day 12: Cuddlefish

Sometimes a cuttlefish wants to cuddle, and sometimes it wants to attack you with its face and ingest you whole. Both sides of the cephalopod's personality are on display in this video from the BBC. Also on display: the giant cuttlefish's unbelievable full-body strobe light effect. This is an animal you want to stay on the good side of.

Thanks for celebrating the 12 Days of Inkfish with me! Next week, regularly scheduled programming will return. Stay tuned for new science and new marveling at nature's old—but spectacular—tricks.

Until then, did you miss any of these?

Day 1: What happens when inkfish receive gifts
Day 2: Life as an upside-down jelly
Day 3: Head explosions and a reverse sun
Day 4: The help desk answers "orangutan stop following me" and other reader questions
Day 5: A video of grebes running on water to prove their commitment
Day 6: How Zion Canyon is like the Princess and the Pea
Day 7: Which posts won Best Mustache and other superlatives in the 2012 yearbook
Day 8: This nebula is a square peg in a round universe, thank goodness
Day 9: These airport worms are hard at work eating your garbage
Day 10: Sending you all on an acoustic scavenger hunt (please report back!)
Day 11: The most charming breeds of purse animals

Image: Screenshot from "Animal mating rituals of giant cuttle fish in the blue Australian ocean waters" by BBC Worldwide