Giant Pacific Octopuses, Giant Pacific Octopus Pictures, Giant Pacific Octopus Facts

Chameleon-like, giant Pacific octopuses can change their appearance to mimic rocks and highly patterned coral.

Photograph by Bob Cranston—Animals Animals - Earth Scenes

Map

Giant Pacific Octopus Range

Fast Facts

Type:: Invertebrate
Diet:: Carnivore
Average life span in the wild:: 3 to 5 years
Size:: 9.75 to 16 ft (3 to 5 m)
Weight:: 22 to 110 lbs (10 to 50 kg)
Did you know?: The appendages of octopuses are called arms, not tentacles.
Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

The giant Pacific octopus grows bigger and lives longer than any other octopus species. The size record is held by a specimen that was 30 feet (9.1 meters) across and weighed more than 600 pounds (272 kilograms). Averages are more like 16 feet (5 meters) and 110 lbs (50 kilograms).

They live to be about four years old, with both males and females dying soon after breeding. Females live long enough to tend fastidiously to their eggs, but they do not eat during this months-long brooding period, and usually die soon afterwards.

Giant Pacific octopuses have huge, bulbous heads and are generally reddish-brown in color. Like the other members of the octopus family, though, they use special pigment cells in their skin to change colors and textures, and can blend in with even the most intricately patterned corals, plants, and rocks.

They hunt at night, surviving primarily on shrimp, clams, lobsters, and fish, but have been known to attack and eat sharks as well as birds, using their sharp, beaklike mouths to puncture and tear flesh. They range throughout the temperate waters of the Pacific, from southern California to Alaska, west to the Aleutian Islands and Japan.

Highly intelligent creatures, giant Pacific octopuses have learned to open jars, mimic other octopuses, and solve mazes in lab tests. Their population numbers are unknown, and they do not currently appear on any lists of endangered or vulnerable animals. However, they are sensitive to environmental conditions and may be suffering from high pollution levels in their range.

Invertebrate Videos

Other Giant Animals

Invertebrate Features

Coral

It's reef madness in this colorful gallery of coral formations.
Photo Gallery: Coral Reefs

About 80 percent of all life on Earth is found in the oceans, which cover 71 percent of the planet's surface. Take a look at how colorful life under the sea can be.
Lobster

Learn more about these popular crustaceans that some think of only as a meal. Find out the sizes that these sea creatures are capable of attaining.
Sea Cucumber

Learn how these amazing echinoderms deter predators by snaring them with sticky threads and even hurling their internal organs about.

Please select a test to run

On Nat Geo WILD

TV Schedule »

Animal News

Animals

Animal News

Special Ad Section

From the Magazine

Gannets Pictures

Champion divers but clumsy landers, doting parents but hostile neighbors—northern gannets abound in contradictions.
Estonia's Ural Owls

Photographer Sven Začek provides an intimate view of this large raptor.