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Marcos Garcia
Marine Biology
Giant Pacific Octopus
12/14/2016

Scientific Name:
Enteroctopus dofleini, also known as
the giant Pacific octopus or North
Pacific giant octopus, is a large
marine cephalopod belonging to the genus Enteroctopus.
Diet:
clams, cockles, crabs, abalone, scallops, fish, fish eggs, octopuses
Predators:
Cormorants, Sperm Whales, Seals, Sea Lion, and Octopus
Size:
often 50 pounds and 15 feet across; sometimes larger
Habitat:
Reefs & Pilings
Range:
Japan to Alaska to Baja California
Average Life Span:
2 to 5 years

They're usually reddish-pink with a

delicate, veinlike pattern when you see
them
up close, fading to white on the underside
of the
tentacles. Its eight arms are covered with
suction cups2,240 of them in females, about 100 fewer in maleswhich give the octopus
an iron grip as well as exquisite powers of taste and smell.
Giant Pacific octopus spend most of their lives alone. They live in chilly (60 degrees
Fahrenheit or colder) Pacific waters from Korea and Japan north to Alaska and south to

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Southern California. They live in fairly shallow, coastal waters down to depths of 330 feet
or more. If you're lucky and extremely s harp-eyed you may find one in a tide pool.
Octopuses are very intelligent animals that can learn to open jars, play with toys, and
interact with their handlers. Scientists long thought that animals were unlikely to evolve
intelligence unless they were social (lik, so the octopus's clever, lonely life is something of
a mystery.

Body Parts:

Masters of Camouflage:

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Like other octopuses, the giant Pacific octopus is a

master of disguise due to a complex system of pigment
cells, muscle fibers and nerves. Millions of elastic cells
under the skin contain colored pigments. By stretching
these open or squeezing them shut from moment to
moment, the octopus adjusts its skin color. It can flash a
warning signal or melt into the background, using its
sharp eyes to match the patterns and colors of its
background nearly perfectly. Experiments have shown
that octopuses are color-blind, making these feats that much more mystifying.

The early days: life as a tiny octopus

The largest octopus in the world hatches from an egg the size of a rice grain. The tiny
hatchlings are just over a
quarter-inch long and weigh 22
milligrams (less than a
thousandth of an ounce). On
one, their eight little arms
already have about 14 tiny
suckers each.

day

Octopuses typically live alone,

saving up energy for their one
chance at mating near the end
of their roughly three-year
lives. Then a female choo ses a
male typically one much larger than herself
and together they head for a den in deeper water
(40 to 170 feet deep). A month or more after
mating, the female lays 18,000 to 74,000 eggs
(occasionally more), hanging them from the roof
of a deep-water den in hundreds of strands of
around 250 eggs each.The mother octopus lives
in
the cave for up to seven months as the curtain of
eggs develops, fanning the eggs with her arms or
contracting her body to shoot streams of oxygen- and nutrient-rich water over them. She
doesn't eat during this time and usually diesshortly after the young hatch.