Octopus

The photo is taken from Google.


As a lot of us know that there is a very famous octopus named Paul from Germany that accurately predicted 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup's every move. Now the event has ended, there were people who wanted to buy Paul for the next sport match and there were people who wanted to put him in their dishes as an entree, but fortunately the employees in the German aquarium (Sorry, I don't remember the name of that aquarium.) refused to sell or cook Paul.

Now here's something that's not concerning about any sporting events but something related to Paul, the octopus, himself, but before we start, let me ask you this question and I don't want any of you to cheat, since the answer will reveal itself by the time you finish this article, how many hearts does an octopus have?

The common octopus, also known as the Octopus Vulgaris, is a member of a group of mollusks called the Cephalopods, that also includes squid and cuttlefish. What make the Cephalopods having their own kind are because they have large heads, well developed eyes and beaklike mouths completed by sucker-tripped arms. They grab their prey and kill them by a poisonous bite. To move, they suck water into their body cavity and squirt the water out backwards, that sends their body foward and their arms behind. There are about 650 species of those Celphalopods and they all live in the sea.

Now the octopus is one of the most intelligent invertebrates, that means they have no internal skeleton or shells to protect themselves, the only hard part in their body is their beaks, so that means if there is a hole just enough for the beak to go through, that means the whole octopus can go throguh without a scratch on themselves.

There are some records saying that there are giant squids around the world, which is true, but they are not the common octopus, now the octopus' size is somewhat smaller than the giant squid, although they can indeed go up to 3 ft. (1m) long and their distributions are in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean Sea.

The octopus breed by laying about 200,000 eggs and she guards those eggs for 6 weeks without food, so by the time when those eggs hatch, that usually means it's her time to go.

An octopus's main (primary) defense is to hide, either not to be seen at all, or at least not to be detected as an octopus. Octopuses have several secondary defenses (defenses they use once they have been seen by a predator). The most common secondary defense is fast escape. Other defenses include the use of ink sacs, camouflage, and autotomising limbs.

Octopuses have a relatively short life expectancy, and some species live for as little as six months. Larger species, such as the North Pacific Giant Octopus, may live for up to five years under suitable circumstances. However, reproduction is a cause of death: males can only live for a few months after mating, and females, like I have mentioned before, die shortly after their eggs hatch.

The answer that I asked right in the beginning on how many hearts of an octopus is three!!!