Inky the Octopus Escapes From a New Zealand Aquarium
By DAN BILEFSKY

It was an audacious nighttime escape.

After busting through an enclosure, the nimble contortionist appears to have quietly crossed the floor, slithered through a narrow drain hole about six inches in diameter and jumped into the sea. Then he disappeared.

This was no Houdini, but rather a common New Zealand octopus called Inky, about the size of a soccer ball.

The breakout at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier, which has captured the imagination of New Zealanders and made headlines around the world, apparently began when Inky slipped through a small gap at the top of his tank.

Octopus tracks suggest he then scampered eight feet across the floor and slid down a 164-foot-long drainpipe that dropped him into Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of North Island, according to reports in New Zealand’s news media.

The aquarium’s keepers noticed the escape when they came to work and discovered that Inky was not in his tank. A less independence-minded octopus, Blotchy, remained behind.

The aquarium’s manager, Rob Yarrall, told Radio New Zealand that employees had searched the aquarium’s pipes after discovering Inky’s trail, to no avail.

The escape happened several months ago, but it only recently came to light. “He managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went,” Mr. Yarrall said. “Didn’t even leave us a message.”

Inky’s escape surprised few in the world of marine biology, where octopuses are known for their strength, dexterity and intelligence.

Alix Harvey, an aquarist at the Marine Biological Association in England, noted that octopuses, members of a class of marine animals including squid and cuttlefish called Cephalopoda, have shown themselves to be adept at escaping through spaces as small as a coin, constrained only by their beaks, the only inflexible part of their bodies.

Ms. Harvey said that octopuses had also been documented opening jars and sneaking through tiny holes on boats, and that they could deflect predators by spraying an ink that lingers in the water and acts as a decoy. Some have been seen hauling coconut shells to build underwater shelters.

“Octopuses are fantastic escape artists,” she said. “They are programmed to hunt prey at night and have a natural inclination to move around at night.”

She continued, “They have a complex brain, have excellent eyesight, and research suggests they have an ability to learn and form mental maps.”

Ms. Harvey recalled one octopus at a British aquarium that escaped nightly from his tank, slithered to a nearby tank to snack on fish for dinner, and went home.

Octopuses’ intelligence, she said, was partly an evolutionary response to their habitation in complex environments such as coral reefs, in which the animals need to hide from predators and sneak up on their prey.

Inky is not the first octopus to attract the spotlight. In the summer of 2010, Paul, an octopus in Germany, gained worldwide attention when he appeared to correctly pick the winning team in all seven of Germany’s games at the World Cup in South Africa — a feat that inspired a song. He has been immortalized in Oberhausen, Germany, with a six-foot plastic replica of him clutching a soccer ball.

章魚版「越獄風雲」 紐西蘭上演

紐西蘭北島內皮爾市（Napier）水族館今年發生一起章魚逃脫事件，聰明的章魚「黑漆漆」（Inky）從水族箱頂蓋的小縫中逃脫，靜悄悄地橫越地板約兩公尺，接著擠進直徑十五公分的排水口，溜下長四十九公尺的「水管溜滑梯」，撲通一聲掉進霍克次灣，重回太平洋懷抱。

水族館員工直到隔天早上，在水族箱裡遍尋不著體型約足球大小的「黑漆漆」，並在地上發現「黑漆漆」拖行流下的水漬，才驚覺「黑漆漆」執行了大膽的夜間逃亡計畫。

「黑漆漆」逃脫事件最近才曝光，紐約時報、華盛頓郵報十三日都圖文並茂報導。紐西蘭國立水族館經理亞拉爾開玩笑說：「牠設法鑽進其中一個通往大海的排水管，沒留下訊息就離開了。」亞拉爾說，他和水族館員工找遍了館內所有水管，但都沒有發現「黑漆漆」的蹤影。該水族館的章魚池內，如今僅剩一隻章魚「汙疤」（Blotchy）。亞拉爾說，未來會嚴密監控「汙疤」。

海洋生物學家對於「黑漆漆」的「越獄風雲」並不詫異，因為章魚向來以強悍、敏捷靈巧和聰明著稱。英格蘭「海洋生物協會」水族館館長艾莉克斯．哈維說，章魚屬於頭足綱水生動物，牠們已證明自己能夠穿過硬幣大小的空間，全身上下只有嘴巴沒有彈性。同屬頭足綱的水生動物還有烏賊和墨魚等。

哈維表示，目前已知章魚會開罐子並穿過小孔溜上船，牠們會用噴墨障眼法躲避天敵的追捕，有些章魚還會用椰子殼在海底築巢。她說：「章魚是很厲害的逃脫大師，牠們生來就擅長在夜間行動和捕食。牠們擁有複雜的大腦結構和出色的眼力，研究顯示，他們能夠學習並形塑心智圖。」

哈維憶道，曾有一隻章魚在她看管的英國水族館中，趁著夜黑風高溜出自己的水族箱，到隔壁水族箱偷魚吃，飽餐一頓後才乖乖回家。

哈維說，章魚的智能從珊瑚礁等複雜的棲地環境中演化而來，牠們必須躲避掠食者並捕食。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/world/asia/inky-octopus-new-zealand-aquarium.html

2016-04-15．聯合報．A17．國際．編譯陳韻涵