News

Octopus Mating Session Called Off At Seattle Aquarium Due To Fears Of Cannibalism

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Feb 16, 2016 10:44 AM EST

On Valentine's Day, Seattle Aquarium cancelled a scheduled date and octopus mating session. The fears were that everyone would be able to see an act of cannibalism, CNN reports.

Amazingly, Kong, one of their octopi, was too big to get a good mate. This 70-pound octopus would end up eating rather than dating a smaller female, they feared.

"We've never seen an animal that was ready to mate that was smaller than 35 pounds. Beyond that, we won't even bother," said Tim Carpenter, the aquarium's curator of fish and invertebrates.

Kong is a Giant Pacific octopus. His kind can live for three to five years, at which age they weigh 90 pounds. But it's only at that ripe, old age of five that they begin to get the love bite and feel the need to breed, like poor Kong, who had to give up kissing a blind date on Valentine's Day, in case he ate her instead.

On the contrary, the aquarium had divers that swam in sync with the giant octopus so that onlookers had a good scene they could watch.

One decade ago, they had placed an octopus inside the same tank as a shark. The onlookers had to see quite a terrible sight of one eating the other.

Now which one did the eating?

Not the shark, as you might think, but the octopus. It quickly attacked and gulped down the shark while visitors could only look on, Christian Science Monitor reports.

That was why Seattle Aquarium had to play spoilsport this time. Thankfully, Kong didn't try to eat the divers, but he had to settle down with swimming with them rather than the ladies.

© 2023 Counsel & Heal All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics