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toc Young woo Octopus By: Young woo Ko =Introduction= == Most people think that an octopus is just another boring sea creature. That is not true! Octopus can be as wild as other wild animals. For instance, blue-ringed octopus can kill a human in 15 minutes with its poisonous bite and the giant deep-sea octopus can grow up to 20m and has 7m arms!

=Appearance= The eight footed sea animal is known scientifically as the Cabreana Octopus. Most Octopuses have a globe-shaped ‘head’ or mantle that contains all the vital organs and mouth with a sharp beak to **decimate** their prey. It has smooth skin and is able to grow up to 2m. Amazingly, the biggest octopus on earth called giant deep-sea octopus can grow up to 20m and has 7m arms. On the other hand, the smallest octopus called octopus Wolfi grows up to only 1.5 cm and is found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. =Habitat= == Most octopuses are found in oceans especially Arctic. The octopus is a **solitary** sea creature so it lives alone in a den and never allows visitors. Sometimes, an octopus finds another octopus in its den but this rarely happens because an octopus hunts at night. It is a clever creature because it knows that it is dangerous to hunt at noon because it is when its **predators** come and catch their prey.

=Catching its Food= It camouflages by the color of the surrounding so that its prey cannot spot it and sneaks up to the prey. Then it traps the prey in its arm and drags it towards its strong beak. It bites its prey and **injects** it with poisonous saliva to **paralyze** it. An octopus usually feeds on crabs, shrimps, mussels and shellfish. =Defense= An octopus has 6 fascinating different ways to protect itself. Most of the time, it camouflages itself and the predators such as a dolphin and a shark, swim pass by it without noticing it. But if they do find an octopus by smelling it, the octopus releases a black cloud of ink to **distur****b** the predator’s view and run away while the predator is waiting for the clouds to disappear. Amazingly, the ink contains a substance that **dulls** the predator’s sense of smell and sight so it’s hard to catch the octopus again. It is also able to jet forward by **expelling** water through its mantles, or **squeezes** into small cracks to escape from predators. If it has already been caught by a predator, it cuts its arm and gives the predator **venomous** bite. It is not worried about losing an arm because it grows back again in a few days. =Interesting facts= There are some interesting facts about an octopus. First, its tentacles have 1920 **suction cups** on its whole body. Second, t hey have mouth right under their head. Third, it has a hard beak to break some strong shells. Last, female octopus can lay 100,000 eggs at a time! But there is sad story about birth. =Birth= = = A female octopus works very hard on its babies. It **attaches** all the eggs together like a bunch of grapes and hangs it on the top of their den. When the female octopus finishes thi s work, she doesn’t go ou tside because she protects her babies. She can’t even hunt for food and because of this she dies from hunger when most of her babies are born. The babies become **orphans** so they have to learn everything by themselves.

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Different from what many people think, octopuses are surely a unique sea creature. It has 6 fascinating different ways to protect itself, hunting skills, and camouflaging. In addition, their devotion to protect their babies and to defend their dens proves that they are one of the most responsible and busiest sea animals.