Questions Worth Asking, Answers Worth Knowing

My interests run mostly towards mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, so it's not surprising that I'm typically much more interested and engaged on my visits to zoos than I am at aquariums.  At the zoo I tend to see each animal as an individual, like masterpiece paintings on display in a museum.  At aquariums, I tend to see the animals more like flowers in a garden, each one a fleck of color contributing to an overall impression.  Sometimes, though, I see certain fish or invertebrates which catch my eye and leave me wanting to know more.  Such was the occasion on a recent visit to an aquarium where I saw my first flamboyant cuttlefish.

The creature was so small, so colorful, so surreal looking that, after my trip, I decided I needed to know more about it.  Cracking open the books (by which I mean websites) I found... not a lot.  There's not a lot known about these guys.  One hole in the knowledge that I find particularly intriguing is their toxicity.  Some sources speculated that the species was venomous, potentially enough to be fatal to humans.  Others said that there was no evidence at all that the species was venomous, nor would they expect it to be, as no other cuttlefish are venomous (not many other cephalopods are venomous - among those that are is the tiny, beautiful, and highly-deadly blue-ringed octopus).  This just seems like such an important thing for people to know, especially people working in close proximity to this animal with the potential for getting bitten.

Seriously, no one ever thought of sacrificing an intern to the cause to find out?  (There is precedent for this - the famous herpetologist Karl Schmidt died trying to answer the question of "Just how venomous is the boomslang?" referring to a rear-fanged African tree snake.  The answer, it turns out, is "very.")

In recent years, zoos have shifted their focus to conservation, with the educational component now largely being interpreted as raising awareness and inspiring action.  All of that is good and important and worthwhile.  Still, looking at a candy-colored little monster in an aquarium tank, its arms encircling a beak which may or may-not be capable of inflicting a lethally venomous bite, it occurs to me that we could also be doing a lot more research and learning so much more about these animals... including some stuff which might be good to know before anyone gets a nip.