Inky the Octopus Amazing Escape to Freedom: Just Doing What Cephalopods Do Says Biologist

By Ana Verayo, | April 15, 2016

Inky the Octopus made its escape from the National Aquarium in New Zealand a few days ago.

Inky the Octopus made its escape from the National Aquarium in New Zealand a few days ago.

Inky the Octopus became a worldwide viral celebrity ever since he made his slippery escape to freedom however, scientists say that Inky was just doing what cephalopods are meant to do.

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According to professor Jennifer Mather from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, octopuses just tend to get bored, who teaches at the department of psychology and studies octopus and squid behavior. She says, here is an animal that explores everything in its environment where they discover and take things apart when given a chance, making a tank a pretty boring place to be for an octopus.

Inky discovered a way out of his enclosed tank environment at the National Aquarium in New Zealand where he slithered and swam away in its inky veil of darkness, where he later found a drain pipe and squeezed his way back to the open sea.

Mather says that this is just typical octopus behavior, adding that octopuses are really smart and highly exploratory of their environments. They also possess powerful body strength that can be compressed into different cracks and crevices since they have no fixed bones or joints. This will result in a successful escape, and when they want to go someplace, they will.

The professor explains her understanding of Inky's need to break away and be in a free environment again, as Mather spent 30 years studying these soft, elusive and flexible creatures that are dwelling in ocean depths of more than a thousand kilometers. She also spent most of her field work in Bermuda and Hawaii.

Since Inky bid goodbye to captivity, the New Zealand aquarium is only left with one octopus, but he is not the star that Inky was. According to aquarium manager, Rob Yarrell, they have another octopus called Blotchy, that is smaller than Inky but Inky had the personality.

Mather also notes that this is the reason why octopuses held in captivity in aquariums are almost, always given nicknames. She also mentions how giant Pacific octopuses in the Seattle Aquarium were also named after famous people and even cartoon characters.

For example, there is Leisure Suit Larry whose arms can wrap all over your hand when you submerge it into the tank and there is also Lucretia MacEvil who made it a mission to destroy everything inside its tank and Emily Dickinson, who was so shy and timid that it always remained hidden in the fake backdrop.

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