Giant Pacific Octopus

Lifestyle

Octopuses live alone, and most hunt at night, exploring the ocean floor with their eight sucker-studded tentacles. When a giant Pacific octopus is active, as during hunting or play, its skin color brightens to a deep red. During resting periods, this master of camouflage is generally paler in color, blending into the rocks and corals of its surroundings. Octopuses den in crevices or under rocks, where they lay their eggs and hide from predators.

Food

Octopuses prey on small fish like capelin, as well as mollusks and crustaceans, which they grab with the suction cups lining their tentacles and pry out of shells with their hard beaks. Since octopuses rely on taste and texture to find food, they have highly developed lobes for storing chemical and tactile information. These eight-armed hunters are incredibly flexible and can squeeze through small openings to find prey—or hide from predators, such as halibut, sperm whales, and sea otters.

Life Cycle

Male and female octopuses come together only to mate. The male has one arm tip that looks different from the rest—this is his transmission organ, called the “hectocotylus.” When he reaches maturity, he uses his hectocotylus to hand the female a sperm package. The female lays 20,000 to 100,000 eggs in the form of several strings. She hangs these in her den, and spends the next seven months cleaning, aerating, and caring for the eggs—without even eating. Females die soon after the eggs hatch, and males die several months after mating. Giant Pacific octopuses live just three to five years.

Some of My Neighbors

Pacific walrus, California sea lion, Northern fur seal, harbor seal, sperm whale, lobster

Population Status & Threats

The giant Pacific octopus is common throughout its range. However, larger specimens are seldom seen, suggesting changes in population health or age composition.