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Child-free & fancy-free Photo by Laurie Kormos © California Academy of Sciences |
And if you think that woman who had octuplets went through a lot, you should consider the situation of the mollusk kind.
After laying those 50,000+ eggs, she uses her tentacles to braid them into garlands that she hangs from the ceiling of a small cave or protected space. She tends them continuously for the next five or six months, blowing air on them with her siphon and fending off predators. She usually takes no nourishment during this time and dies shortly after the young hatch--thousands and thousands of teeny tiny little octopuses--and leave her behind.
A few (very few, perhaps only two0 will grow into adults, which generally means to about 100 pounds with a sixteen-foot armspread. The largest recorded weighed 600 pounds, with a thirty-one-foot armspread.
But when you watch the video, it's difficult to imagine those itty bitties managing to negotiate the fearful dangers of the Pacific long enough to become octomoms and octodads.
Just when I'm thinking the video is getting tedious, they break out the beer and sing to the babies. Pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteIt coulda used some editing. These people are REALLY into the baby octopuses! (And that ending is sweet.)
ReplyDeleteAnd you thought getting published was tough. Try growing to adulthood as an octopus!
ReplyDeleteYour post on the octopus and its young is great. And speaking of sibling rivalry, these kids really do engage. Photo and video are lovely. Alice
ReplyDelete