An enterprising octopus spotted his chance to escape from a New Zealand aquarium — and took it.
Squeezing out from a gap at the top of his tank, the "inquisitive" octopus, Inky, slithered across the floor of the aquarium and down a seawater runoff pipe to Hawke’s Bay, and freedom.
"Octopus are very intelligent, very inquisitive and like to push the boundaries," said Rob Yarrell, the manager of the National Aquarium of New Zealand.
"This particular one was very friendly and intelligent and obviously found a weak spot in the top of his tank."
Inky, a common New Zealand octopus who had been caught by a local cray fisherman off the coast of Napier and donated to the aquarium, appears to be a credit to his species.
"While he was with us, he would have learned a lot," Yarrell said. "He was the type that was inquisitive, and a bit wiser than we thought."
He said that no great search would be put on for Inky, who is most likely roaming the sea floor, back in his natural habitat.
"We’ll chalk this up to experience," Yarrell said.
Octopus are able to get out of very small spaces, and only restricted by size of beak, the only rigid part of their bodies.
Culled from cnn.com