Octopus escapes to ocean from New Zealand National Aquarium through slightly open lid

An octopus from the New Zealand National Aquarium used the facility’s drainage pipes to escape to the ocean. Inky, whose body is as big as a rugby ball, found an opportunity when it noticed the lid of its case slightly open.

Mashable reports that maintenance workers unintentionally left the lid open which paved the way for the octopus to regain its freedom. Even if the drain pipe has a width of six inches, octopuses are good at stretching themselves and fitting through very tiny spaces, explains Rob Yarrall from the aquarium.

“As long as its mouth can fit,” an octopus could pass through a small space. Yarrall notes, “Their bodies are squishy but they have a beak, like a parrot,” quotes Stuff.

Employees of the aquarium tracked the sea creature’s escape route by following the tracks the octopus left on the floor. BBC says the animal escaped in earlier part of 2016, but the aquarium staff were mum about the incident until it broke the news.

The other octopus did not escape from its case, but employees of the New Zealand National Aquarium are now carefully observing it, Yarrell says. The aquarium would likely not replace Inky because octopuses are solitary animals which prefer to live by itself. However, it another octopus would be given to the aquarium, they would accept it, he adds.

A fisherman and aquarium volunteer found Inky in 2014 in a cray pot near Pania Reef. It is about half a kilometre north of Napier where the aquarium is located. Inky had shortened tentacles which indicate the sea creature fought some battles in the ocean before its capture.