Octopi By Laura Kemp

THE OCTOPUS. The octopus is an 8 armed animal that lives on the ocean floor. Their name comes from 2 Greek words meaning ‘8 feet’ & some people call them Devilfish because of their frightening appearance.. The Octopus can see very well, This is because they have 2 big eyes on both sides of their head, but although they can see very well they cannot hear.. They have strong, hard jaws that come to a point like a parrot’s beak. They use these jaws to cut up their food.. Octopi have a soft body & 8 arms which are called tentacles. If they lose a tentacle they can grow back another one in its place.. Octopi have 3 hearts & blue blood & they can change colour to match their surroundings.. There are 50 kinds of Octopi & over 100 species. They belong to a group of shellfish called Mollusks & rarely eat humans.. They use their arms to catch prey such as crabs, clams, lobsters & other shellfish.

THE GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS. The Giant Pacific Octopus is one of the largest species of the Octopi. Its reddish-brown body, called The Mantle, & four pairs of arms both have an average of 16 feet long from arm tip to arm tip. The record weight for a Giant Pacific Octopus is 600 pounds, but most of them weigh about pounds & the newly born young are the size of a grain of rice.. At rest, the Octopi skin is smooth & light brownish colour although when they get exited they can change colours by contracting skin cells filled with pigment. This ability allows them to camouflage when hunting for their prey such as shrimps & crabs.. This Octopus lives along rocky shores, in tide pools & in areas from the low-tide line to depths of 1,650 feet. It can also be found along The Pacific Coast from Alaska to Southern California.. The Giant Pacific Octopus can use a sample of defence by using a force of water out of its body whilst propelling itself backwards. This ability is used to escape its prey.

BLUE-RINGED OCTOPUS. The Blue-Ringed Octopus is 20cm long with a soft body. They are small & brown & have 2 sharp eyes on both sides of their head. When they are born they are the size of a pea & when they are fully grown they are the size of a golf ball. You will normally find them in rock-pools or coastal areas & they only live in Australia.. These strange Octopi turn bright blue when they are scared & when it’s in danger it squirts water out of its tentacles as a distraction to get away. They can not talk but their body can change colour according to how they’re feeling, such as when they are angry they turn blue.. The Blue-Ringed Octopus has a life span of only 2 years & the lay up to200 eggs at a time. After mating the male Octopi die & the female die soon after the babies are hatched.. You may think they are just harmless animals according to their size but The Blue-Ringed Octopus has enough poison to kill 26 adults. When a person is bitten, after 15 minutes the venom attacks your body so that your muscles can’t move.

FACTS DO OCTOPI LIKE TO SWIM? No, Octopi do not like to swim. This is because they are an Ocean Animal which means they rarely do much swimming. The Octopus would rather pull itself along with its 8 sucker-lined tentacles. DO OCTOPI HAVE THE ABILITY TO PRODUCE LIGHT? Yes, scientists have recently discovered that a “new” bright orange Octopus with webbed arms is different. They have found that this Animal can glow in the dark from depths of about 900 metres.

THIS POWERPOINT WAS WRITTEN & MADE BY: LAURA KEMP INFORMATION & IMAGES FROM: “The Handy Ocean Answer Book” BY: Thomas E. Svarney & Patricia Barnes-Svarney