April 13, 2016

Inky's escape.

Inky, an octopus "about the size of a soccer ball" at the National Aquarium of New Zealand "slipped through a small gap at the top of his tank" and "scampered eight feet across the floor and slid down a 164-foot-long drainpipe that dropped him into Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of North Island" — and that's the last the humans saw of him.
Alix Harvey, an aquarist at the Marine Biological Association in England [said]... “Octopuses are fantastic escape artists... They are programmed to hunt prey at night and have a natural inclination to move around at night.... They have a complex brain, have excellent eyesight, and research suggests they have an ability to learn and form mental maps.”
Inky's fellow octopus Blotchy stayed behind in the tank... at least for now.

ADDED: Inky and Blotchy — it's like Itchy and Scratchy.

36 comments:

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I hope Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are okay

walter said...

I eagerly await his memoir: "I am not Inky". Should be able to write it quickly. This story took me back to finding a pet turtle in the middle of a slow-motion escape from its tank..about half-way down a flight of stairs. Wait..with the price of ink what it is, how do we know he wasn't squid-napped?

Robert Cook said...

So cool. GO INKY!!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It's amazing what an octopus will do to keep a date with the Fisherman's Wife.

buwaya said...

"Should be able to write it quickly."

With eight arms, damn right.

Jason said...

The Shark Tank Redemption.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Youtube: Octopus Escapes Jar

Chuck said...

The Red Wings just made the playoffs.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

Static Ping said...

So, has the military considered training octupi as ninja assassins?

Ambrose said...

All drains lead to the ocean.

campy said...

Obviously Trump's fault.

tim maguire said...

Reason #57 why octopuses are the coolest creatures on the planet.

Birches said...

This story made my day. It seems as if the release the whales people should probably also care about octopus.

mockturtle said...

I wonder how long he had been plotting his escape before taking the plunge. And how many other captured critters will now be emboldened to follow suit? Great story!

Anonymous said...

Ambrose said...
All drains lead to the ocean.


Except in Death Valley

walter said...

Will have lots of material for a new album

Wilbur said...

Reminds me of one of my favorite baseball names: Inky Strange. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14774251

traditionalguy said...

So Octopus would make a good School Mascot Team's name as we replace the Indian names and apologize for the Indians being brutal savage murderers and kidnappers.

Hold on you Octopussies. Slip over on them. And Cheerleader names would make themselves.

Curious George said...

They are escape artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNPf-DchKO4

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Reminds me of an incident when I was scuba diving. My dive buddy and I were trying to get one out of a hole it had dived in and I happened to look to the side and see another octopus, in a hole, picking up rocks and using them to make a wall in the entrance to the little cave it was in.

I had thoughts of never eating octopus again after that, but calamari is mighty tasty.

Ipso Fatso said...

Inky: Coming to a toilet near you!!!
.

Andrew said...

No one ever believed my story about the octopuses on my mothers kitchen wall till the internet. I had stored them in the crisper drawer of her ice box.

rhhardin said...

Read this paragraph on octopuses and scientists by Vicki Hearne google books

From _Adam's Task_, a book proving that women can in fact write. It's just very rare.

The Godfather said...

Can an octopus "scamper"? (to "run with quick light steps")

Bob Ellison said...

It was Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

I'm having trouble thinking clearly lately. Reading comments here helps. I always have a song running in my mind, and I only recently realized that that's an unusual tendency. It's getting stronger and more insistent. I watched Fiddler on the Roof the other day, and now I'm playing all of the melodies invisibly on my right hand, on piano or trumpet. Easier to do than Candide or Bartok.

Curious George said...

"Ron Winkleheimer said...
Reminds me of an incident when I was scuba diving. My dive buddy and I were trying to get one out of a hole it had dived in and I happened to look to the side and see another octopus, in a hole, picking up rocks and using them to make a wall in the entrance to the little cave it was in.

I had thoughts of never eating octopus again after that, but calamari is mighty tasty."

Calamari is squid. Squids are not octopuses.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

rhhardin said...

"...proving that women can in fact write. It's just very rare."

As with an octopus scampering, the astounding thing is not that they're good it, but that they can do it at all.

Bob Ellison said...

In Greece, and probably in neighboring nations, the tradition is to catch a bunch of octupi and then really violently throw them down, over and over again, against stones or cement. They might think it tenderizes them, but I doubt that it does that. Octupus meat is not much tender no matter what you do.

It seems like a traditional act of violence that might not have much basis in reason.

Big Mike said...

Octopi (which is the proper plural for octopus -- they are not octopussies, traditionalguy) are capable of very unexpected behaviors.

Note for you liberals out there -- even octopi long to be free.

Quaestor said...

Big Mike wrote: Octopi (which is the proper plural for octopus -- they are not octopussies, traditionalguy) are capable of very unexpected behaviors.

Incorrect. Octopus is not Latin, it's Greek. The correct Greek plural is octopodes, however since it also a loan word in English for our purposes the correct plural is octopuses.

Quaestor said...

Octopus meat is not much tender no matter what you do.

In Japan octopus is often pickled in a mixture of rice vinegar and brine which tenderizes the meat considerably. BTW, it's delicious. Be sure to try some.

Josephbleau said...

A gay octopus? Octopussy. Condem me at your will.

Josephbleau said...

Condemn of course.

Quaestor said...

Damn you, Josephbleau! Damn you to heck for impugning the virility of Roger Moore, double-nought spy.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Build a wall around the tank, and make Blotchy pay for it!

mikee said...

Red: [narrating] Not long after the warden deprived us of his company, I got a postcard in the mail. It was blank, but the postmark said Hawke's Bay, North Island. Hawke's Bay... right on the coast. That's where Inky crossed. When I picture him heading south in his own car with the top down, it always makes me laugh. Inky the Octopus... who crawled down an aquarium drainpipe and came out clean on the ocean side. Inky the Octopus... headed for the Pacific.