Northwest Dive Club

Malinda just read a statement somewhere saying that, if an octopus gets hungry enough, it will eat its own arms. I've read a fair bit about the GPO, and have never heard any hint of such a thing. Does anybody know if they actually do this, or is that kind of behavior limited to certain types of octopus, or is the person setting out this "crazy animal fact" blowing smoke?

Did a quick search and found this (short clip)... not sure how its supported but interesting
http://www.tonmo.com/articles/octosuicide.php

EDIT: Just notice that is site is The Octopus News Magazine Online... if that matters, but still interesting.

Greetings,

As I was reading Dave's post I couldn't keep from formulating responses - fortunately Kneedeep's link covered everything I had to say and a bit more. Thanks for posting it!

Note that the article was mainly concerned with captive animals. My guess is that this sort of thing just doesn't come up in the wild but it would be interesting to see what a wild GPO expert like Jim Cosgrove has to say on the subject (hint, hint).

Redundantly yours,

Alex