"The Dude" - Giant Pacific Octopus
 

I took a few pictures playing with my favorite aquarium pal, he is very special and it is easy to see why.

This is "The Dude", he is the second GPO I have had the opportunity to look after. Him and I have a pretty cool bond, and he is not shy in the slightest with me around the tank. He lets me pet him, and we have a few games that we like to play. He seems to enjoy contact with me, and will often ignore food just to hang out.

Greeting me at the top of the tank:

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0018.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0032.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0024.jpg

Holding my hand:

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0031.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...IMG_0040-2.jpg

When I splash him at the top, he covers his face and has even siphoned water at full blast right back at me!

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...n/IMG_0022.jpg

Cool sucker shots:

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...IMG_0044-1.jpg

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/t...IMG_0045-1.jpg

He is smart enough to open jars to get his food, and can easily tell the difference between me and other people.

Just thought I might share :)

that is cool!!

who needs a dog when.....

That is very cool. I knew they where smart, but that seems to be very smart.

Very cool! Thanks for that.

So this is where?

Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre?

Yup! It's the Discovery Center in Sidney.

Speaking of dogs, I even got him a dog "Kong". He loves his kong, and it's pretty cool to see him snake his arms through it to get treats. I'm on the lookout for a good sized toy tall ship. I would love a video of him sinking the ship to get food. Gimicky, I know. But hilarious.

Um, ya.....ahhh that is just a bit too unsettling for me...How do you tell when he gets mad and need to back off?

The ship thing would be hilarious, if i had one I'd mail it. COuld cheap out and use a whitespot pirate pack?

When he's trying to eat your face would be my guess lol

Thats pretty cool, thanks for the pics.

Ya that would be my concern.." hum maybe I should have GLUP GLUP let go before he decided to GLUP GLUP latch on to me and GLUP pull me in. "

That's actually a pretty good question. Really, it's almost impossible to know for sure if what I think is "play" is actually playing, or a sinister attempt to eat me. That said, I interact with him daily and I have slowly built trust with him. It didn't take him too long to figure out that I was the source of food. I can't really explain it, but you can just tell he doesn't mean you any harm.

Though, if he is really hungry and I start playing with him and would rather food he can get a bit more aggressive. I avoid letting him touch me with his larger suckers because they are STRONG. Seriously, it is impossible to pry yourself off if he grabs you with them. There have been a couple times where I wasn't paying attention and he has grabbed me and refused to let go. The only course of action at this point is to hold your hand out of the water and let his weight tire him out and he will let go eventually.

For this reason, I am just starting to train him to let go of me on command. Which is perhaps the only time I have been able to apply part of my education to my job thus far!

Signs that he is mad would be him showing me his beak, or going mostly white while accentuating his eye. Or if I startled him he would ink me and try to escape. He has never done any of these things.


Haha, thanks! Maybe we could pitch that to whitespot! I like burgers after all.

Talking about being smart
 

I heard this story a few years ago about this aquarium having fish go missing during the night from tanks that had no other fish with them. So they assumed that an employee was stealing fish during the night so they set up a hidden camera. Turns out that they had an octopus and there was a small hole on top of the tank, he had figured out how to reach out and open his tank. Then climb out, across the floor and into another tank. He would catch fish and then climb back out and go back home.

They are really cool creatures. This is so awesome, I love reading your updates.

What is the lifespan of these big guys? It's kinda sadly short, isn't it?

Yeah I found it. Simply AMAZING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROwnyb6T2e4

Sounds like you have a really rewarding job I envy you! Thx for the stories.

you posted a cat video.... funny. but no octo.

Haha, release the Craken!

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Yeah I have heard about this story too. We have our lids sealed very tight so that he isn't able to escape, I wouldn't doubt that he would figure out how to squeeze through a hole. The hole needs to be larger than the beak and that's it.

Thanks! You are right, they only live up to five years old. While longer than the little tropical guys still makes me kind of sad.

Haha, random. That video made me chuckle.

:behindsofa::cool:

very cool.
I want a mini octo tank!

Octupus' are intelligent creatures. There have been documentaries on them, very intersting to watch. As Youngster Dan has pointed out, they can solve puzzles to get at their food, and what dwerbs87 said about finding food. Really neat to see them leave a tank area, find another and go hunting, then return to their home, and we wouldn't be the wiser.

Thanks for sharing, great pic's.

There is a really good nature documentary, oh must be about 10 years old by now, called "The Mudskipper and the Hyena" which showcased life in the tidal pools off the east coast of Africa somewhere. It would show fantastic footage of reef creatures including skunk clownfish inside H. magnifica anemones and so on, even during a lunar low tide where the low tide was so low that most things were exposed and here were these poor fish flopping about in pools for the duration their anemone was exposed (they survive BTW). But they also showed how this one octopus would basically sit in a tidepool, wait for low tide, scoot around from pool to pool, fill up on whatever .. and once he was done eating, he'd crawl back to the ocean. Here was this gooey blob with tentacles pulling himself along, he trucked at a pretty good clip too when he was headed back to the ocean.

There was also a viral youtube clip a couple months ago about an octopus at a tidepool near San Francisco I think it was, where the octopus crawls out of the water, shimmies up to the person videotaping this, deposits a crab at their feet, and then scoots back into the water. I'll see if I can find the link for anyone who hasn't seen this yet and wants to .. it's pretty keen.

Well.. that wasn't too hard to find.. :lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjQr3lRACPI

Well, we released The Dude May 10th and it has been the coolest experience to play with him every day. It is sad to see his tank empty right now, but I know he is up to no good and causing a ruckus.

We got some footage of the release:
http://vimeo.com/42052796

Later Dude.

Nice job. Nice video. Thank you for sharing.

Dude, those are awesome pics! Super jealous you got to work with him.

I love GPO. I've come across a few while diving and it's always a blast. There's a small one that lived in my regular dive spot for a couple years we'd stop in to visit. The guy would come out to visit us and check us out. Used to freak me out when he got too friendly. UnderwaterI wouldn't stand a chance against him!

Are you guys getting in another?

That is awesome. Thanks for posting this!! (Thanks for putting it on Vimeo too, makes it easier for me to watch on the big screen, haha. -- I can do so on youtube too but vimeo makes it way easier..)

I don't think I've been to the aquarium in Victoria since I was a kid. :neutral: Maybe I'll change that this summer when I'm over. When did it become a "Shaw" thing?

Thanks!

Yeah, they certainly can get friendly. Which can be pretty unnerving, just be sure they don't try and pull your mask and reg out, hah!

We are currently out looking for another :)

Thanks!

You are probably thinking of the underseas gardens in the inner harbour of victoria? The Shaw Ocean Discovery Center is actually in Sidney, and has been up and running for 3 years. The two places are very different. It is definitely worth a visit, especially for the GPO.

Oh sorry, I should have just googled the name and realized it was a totally different place. My bad!

No worries, you certainly are not the first person to think they are the same place. When you visit, feel free to ask for Dan and if I'm able I would be happy to show you around.