In 1999, Mark Norman, a biologist at the Victoria Museum in Australia, first reported his observations of mimetic octopuses. Mimetic octopuses, he said, are not the only creatures that can mimic the demeanor and behavior of another. Many animals and plants can also mimic in defense.

For example, the hawk moth caterpillar has a pattern on the top of its back that looks like a snake's head. If a hungry bird flies by, the hawkmoth caterpillar raises its head and wiggles its snake-head-like pattern to scare off its foe. There are other creatures that use mimicry to lure in predators. The Malaysian praying mantis, for example, looks like a flower, but in fact often devours visitors to its place. The mimic octopus also mimics for self-defense. It mimics almost every kind of animal in its environment, and it is one of the few animals that can constantly change its shape. A close relative of the mimic octopus, the "wonderpus," also has amazing shape-shifting abilities.

Norman and a team of divers who photographed the mimic octopus in Indonesia noticed that every time an aggressive damselfish attacked the mimic octopus, the octopus would bury its body and limbs under the sand with its six wrist arms and then flick its remaining two wrist arms like a spotted sea serpent, a major predator of the damselfish.

Norman said the anthropomorphic octopus's remarkable mimicry can be correctly enacted even at different times. The mimic octopus typically lives in the muddy bays of Indonesia and Malaysia. There are many small burrowing invertebrates, such as sandworms. Mud-loving invertebrates provide nutritious food for shrimps and crabs, so there is a veritable seafood smorgasbord of crustaceans and fish. It often comes here in search of food, but their enemies such as large deep-water predators like sharks and barracudas also frequent the area. Norman says it's also frequented by predators! It is here that the anthropomorphic octopus has no place to hide from those predators, and thus mimics the aforementioned venomous creatures, sea snakes and demoiselle trevally, to avoid bad luck.