It’s not every day that you hear about an octopus on the lamb, but apparently a cephalopod named Inky from the National Aquarium of New Zealand is doing just that.
In an escape worthy of The Count of Monte Cristo or The Shawshank Redemption, Inky apparently noticed that maintenance workers accidentally left a gap at the top of his tank—and took it as an opportunity. After slipping through the gap, he slid down and slithered across the floor before squeezing his rugby-ball-sized (slightly larger than an American football) body down a six-inch (150-mm) diameter drain pipe—or at least, that’s what the aquarium staff have gathered after finding his tracks.
The Houdini of the Sea
Octopodes, incidentally, are great at squeezing into tiny places.
“As long as its mouth can fit,” Rob Yarrall, from the National Aquarium, told Stuff.co.nz. “Their bodies are squishy but they have a beak, like a parrot.”
The pipe happily leads to the sea, meaning Inky—who was taken in after being found injured in a crawfish pot in 2014—is now back home. In fact, he’s been cavorting about in the wild for about three months, as his escape was only made public yesterday.
Aquarium guests already miss him—he was popular with both the staff and visitors, according to Yarrall—but many are cheering him on, too. Octopodes are quite intelligent creatures, and often need a lot of stimulation to keep them from getting bored—and it seems like Inky may have been looking for some excitement.
“Octopuses are famous escape artists but Inky really tested the waters here,” Yarrall told The Guardian. “I don’t think he was unhappy with us, or lonely, as octopi are solitary creatures. But he is such a curious boy, he would want to know what’s happening on the outside. That’s just his personality.”
“You never know, there’s always a chance Inky could come home to us,” Yarrell added.
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Image credit: National Aquarium of New Zealand
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