Facts About Octopus

An octopus is a soft-bodied, sea creature with a bulbous head and eight arms, hence it is named as the octopus. The name octopus was originally derived from a Greek word meaning number eight. These sea or marine creatures lack skeletal system and are grouped into Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Mollusca, Class: Cephalopoda and Genus: Octopus. According to the World Animal Foundation, there are around 289 to 300 species of octopus.

Octopuses are carnivores, which feed on other creatures available in their area including clams, shellfish, shrimp, lobsters, fish, sharks, and even birds. These sea creatures are found in all oceans and usually live on the ocean floor, within shells, crevices, and reefs. Let’s look into several amazing octopus facts.

Few interesting and amazing facts about the octopus.

Fact – NO -1

Octopuses are predators, and they typically kill their prey by dropping down on them and enclosing it with their arms. The prey is then pulled into their beaks and broken up. An octopus’s beak resembles a parrot’s beak.

Fact – NO -2

These marine creatures have an excellent sense of touch, powerful, beak-like jaws and venomous saliva. Their suckers have receptors that enable an octopus to taste what it is touching.

Fact – NO -3

Octopus can squeeze itself into ridiculously small cracks and crevices. This mainly because they have a soft body and lack an internal skeleton.

Fact – NO -4

An octopus has three hearts, two of which pumps blood to the gills and the third heart circulates blood to rest of the body.

Fact – NO -5

Octopus has blood that is coloured blue, this is mainly because of the presence of hemocyanin – a copper-based protein in its blood cells.

Fact – NO -6

Octopuses are fast swimmers, but they usually prefer to crawl than swim because, while swimming, the systemic heart becomes inactive and stops delivering blood to its organs and makes them exhausted very soon.

Fact – NO -7

The size of octopuses usually vary. They come in different sizes, which normally range from 12 to 36 inches in length and between 3 to 10 kilograms in weight. According to National Geographic, the giant Pacific octopuses, which are found throughout the Pacific Ocean, weighs between 50 kg to 272 kg and measures over 30 feet long.

Fact – NO -8

Octopuses have very good camouflage – they can change their body colour to matching their surroundings just in milliseconds.

Fact – NO -9

Octopuses are good mimics too. They can flex or contort their body to resemble more dangerous animals, including venomous sea snakes, lion-fish and also specific undersea objects, like plants or rocks.

Fact – NO -10

Octopuses have a very short life span. Some species live only for six months. The giant octopus can live as long as five or six years. According to some research, octopuses mate and they die in a few months.

Fact – NO -11

Octopuses are an egg-laying species. A female octopus lay 200,000 to 400,000 eggs at a time and guard the eggs without eating until they hatch. The female octopuses die through cellular suicide as soon after the eggs are hatched.

Fact – NO -12

All octopuses are venomous – evidence shows that the animal does not make the venom by itself, but are produced by symbiotic bacteria instead. The blue-ringed octopus is the most venomous to humans and they are fatal.

Fact – NO -13

Octopuses are a highly intelligent marine species. This is due to the fact that they have the largest brain, complete with a well-developed central nervous system and 500 million neurons found in its arms, allowing for touch, taste, and gripping its prey.

Fact – NO -14

They use some tools to escape from their prey. When scared, octopuses will shoot a dark cloudy, ink-like liquid which will temporarily blind and confuse the attackers, giving the octopus precious time to escape.

Fact – NO -15

According to the recent studies, octopuses are quick learners. They observe other octopuses.

These were a few interesting facts about the Octopus. For more facts and other additional information about other animals, check for the links given below.