Octopi in Mallorca

We are happy to announce the presence of THOUSANDS of octopi again this year! This beautiful picture of an octopus sunbathing was taken yesterday outside the Palma Caves.

Octopus Facts

An octopus has 8 arms usually bearing 2 rows of suction cups. They have no skeleton, the only hard part of their body is their beak which they use for eating, this enables them to squeze into tiny little holes and cracks to escape prepadotrs such as moray eels and groupers. Octopusus have excellent eye sight and an excellent sense of touch. They have 3 hearts and although they have 8 identical arms, they usually favour one arm over the others (a little like us being left or right-handed).

Octopuses have 3 defence mechanisms;

• They can squirt ink at their predators to help them escape
• They are very good at camouflague; the chemoreceptors in their skin help the octopus to change colour and even consistency to blend in with its surroundings, sometimes they appear spiky and sometimes smooth.
• Some octopus can detach their own limbs to act as a distraction (like a liquard or skink) and they can regrow new limbs!

After mating, the female lays about 200,000 eggs which she hangs in a string from her lair. The male usually dies a month or so after mating and the female dies shortly after the eggs hatch. Octopi have a very short life span, some species live for about 6 months while the oldest type of specieis my survive for up to 5 years.

Octopi are incredibly intelligent creatures. They have an excellent memory and have been known to climb abord fishing vessels, open the hatches and eat crabs! When kept as ´pets´ they can escape from their aquarium and jump into another aquarium to find food or a mate, they can even open a jam jar to get the food out AND put the lid back on -incredible!