North+Pacific+Giant+Octopus

**The North Pacific Giant Octopus ** __Description & Predator and Prey __ Did you know that the North Pacific Giant Octopus is the largest species of octopus in the world?! But they have a pretty short life span (3 to 5 years) and weigh from 60 to 80 lbs. As their name suggests, they're found in the coastal North Pacific. All of them have a venomous bite (their saliva), but interestingly, smaller ones have a worse bite than the bigger ones. Sea otters, certain whales, seals, and even humans (commercially fishing) prey on them, but the octopus' prey include shrimp, crabs, scallops, abalone, clams, and fish. They obtain food by using their rasping tongue as a drill, venom to paralyze, or their beak to break. They pull their prey apart and then consume it. Feisty!
 * // (Enteroctopus dofleini // ) **



__Special Characteristics & Reproduction __ These octopuses have a complex nervous system, thorough muscle movement, and ink distribution in their chromatophores that can make them yellow, orange, brown, red, blue, or black. Their eyes will always be horizontal because they have statocysts that keep the orientation of their eyes in relation to gravity. A male impregnates 6 females with their modified arm (hectocotylus) and then generally move into deeper water and dies. The spermatophore that they deposit is more than 1 meter long! (Woah!) In the spring, females lay 20,000 to 100,000 eggs and then they die after the eggs hatch. Their dens can be any space, a cavity in the sand, or even bottles and cans in the ocean.

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