The most well-known of the octopus's defense mechanisms is its ability to squirt clouds of ink into the water some octopi use this cloud this cloud of ink as camouflage after squirt the ink the octopus retreats into the ink cloud where the predator cannot see it other octopi use the ink cloud as a decoy if a large intelligent predator such as a shark knows that octopi use ink clouds for camouflage it might simply attack the ink cloud blindly hoping to make contact with the octopus inside however some sneaky octopi will release the ink cloud in one direction and scurry away in another direction leaving the predator with nothing but a mouthful of ink in addition to confusing perdatAnother defense mechanism possessed by many octopi is the ability to change color much like a chameleon most animals get their color from chemicals in the skin called chromatophores (melanin is one of these chromatophores) chromatophores might contain yellow orange red brown or black pigments and the amount of each pigment present in the skin determines an animal's color while most animals are always the same color some species of octopi can control of each color pigment in their skin cells allowing them to change color some poisonous octopi when provoked will change their skin to a bright eye-catching color to warn predators that they are dangerous and ready to strike other octopi use this ability to change their skin to the color and texture of seaweed or coral allowing them to blend in with their environment finally some octopi-such as the mimic octopus-use this color-changing ability to masquerade as another type of animal the body of an octopus is highly flexible and some species can combine this flexibility with their color-changing skills to make themselves resemble more dangerous animals such as sea snakes or predator's sense of sight these ink clouds also confuse their sense of smell the ink is composed primarily of melanin (the same chemical that gives human skin its color)which can shut down a predator's sense of smell if an octopus cannot be seen or smelled it has a much higher chance of escaping an attack