Octopus facts
Discover the secrets of one of the ocean’s most fascinating creatures…
Ready to get up-close and personal with one of nature’s quirkiest creatures? Then check out our awesome octopus facts!
Fast octopus facts
Scientific name: Octopoda
Family name: Octopodidae
Classification: Invertebrate
IUCN status: Not evaluated
Lifespan (in wild): 1-2 years
Weight: 3-10kg
Body length: Generally 30-90cm (some species can grow to 5.4m!)
Top speed: 40km/h
Diet: Carnivore
Habitat: Ocean
Range:
Octopuses are sea animals famous for their rounded bodies, bulging eyes and eight long arms. These cool critters live in all the world’s oceans, but they’re especially abundant in warm, tropical waters. Like their cousin, the squid, octopuses are often considered ‘monsters of the deep’, lurking in the depths of the seas. However, there are some kinds of octopus that live in relatively shallow waters.
Most octopuses stay along the ocean’s floor, although some species are ‘pelagic,’ meaning they live near the water’s surface. Other octopus species live in deep, dark waters, and rise from below at dawn and dusk to search for food. They perform their famous backward swim by blasting water through a muscular tube on their body called a siphon. They also crawl along the ocean’s floor, tucking their arms into small openings to search for food.
Favourites on the octopus’ menu include crabs, shrimps and lobsters, but they will sometimes eat larger prey, too, such as sharks. When going for grub, octopuses typically drop down on their prey from above, and then use the powerful suctions that line their arms to pull their victim into their mouth.
Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable octopus primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!
Octopuses themselves provide tasty meals for other sea creatures, such as seals, whales and large fish, who like to gobble them up. But these eight-armed animals have a few cheeky tricks to help defend themselves! If threatened, octopuses shoot an inky fluid from their body that darkens the water around them, confusing the aggressor.
They can also hide and blend in with their surroundings, too, by changing colour to grey, brown, pink, blue or green. Impressive stuff! As well as for camouflage, these incredible invertebrates use colour change as a way to communicate with other octopuses.
For the most part, octopuses are solitary creatures and live alone in dens made from rocks. And check this out – they build their dens themselves by moving the rocks into place with their powerful arms. Cool, eh? These brilliant builders sometimes even fashion a rock “door” that pulls closed when the octopus is safely inside the den.
Although octopuses are not considered endangered, they do face dangers from human activity. Such threats include habitat destruction, and a reduction in their main foods due to over fishing and marine pollution.
Picture credits – Octopus and its tentacles: Michal Adamczyk, Dreamstime. Octopus shooting inky fluid: Vittorio Bruno, Shutterstock. Octopus blending in with ocean floor: Serban Enache, Dreamstime.
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Very cool and intresting fun facts
this is fun!
Help ful
My comment is about an octopus. It tickles people and then they go above the surface and they drop down on their prey then they eat it. I love octopuses. They live in the water and their cousin is a squid. They live under water in the deepest part.
cool
it is cool
my fav animal is a octopus
thank you for helping me with my paper
hi
hi
wow!!!!!!!
can't wait for what?
We need to help them
whats up kids
I have always loved octopuses and I would love to handle one they are so interesting sea life is so epic and I want to be a marine biologist
I love Marine-Biology. I would like to become a Marine-Biologist when I'm older. All of this facts about Sea Life is just so WOW!
so cool
I really want to find out about all the animals in the world
This is interesting
This is a great site! I love all the facts and info about animals! I want to be a scientist when I'm older so all of this is really useful.
I used to hate the octopus but with its cool facts, i think i like it
i absolutely love nat geo kids it has so many fact about animals that make me smarter i absolutely love nat goe kids !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These facts are so cool!
I like octopuses. Because I like their arms
WOW! I never knew octopuses were so amazing
I like your facts about animals
cool octopus!
I love National Geographic Kids!
I really like octopus
We love Octopus. We are going to see some soon. We learnt about lots of Octopus.
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