The Sciku Project

the tenderness
of a mother’s touch
eight arms caressing eggs

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Mother octopuses are so devoted to ensuring the health and survival of their eggs that they outdo all of nature in their supreme final acts of sacrifice. And these acts last much longer than you would ever imagine. Brushing her eggs to keep them free of silt and sediment, blowing water over them to diffuse oxygen through their membranes and constantly guarding her eggs with eight arms to ward off reef fish, eels and starfish, a mother octopus dedicates 100% of her time, energy and attention to her brood.

This means that from the moment she strands her eggs and attaches them to the walls of her den, she remains with them, staying with them day and night for the remainder of her life (which last another 1 to 4 months for a Common Octopus, 5 to 10 months for a Great Pacific Octopus and about 53 months for a deep-sea octopus). During this time, the mother octopus slowly starves to death in a process known as senescence, passing away just before or at the same time as her eggs begin to hatch. This ensures that the mother octopus does not cannibalize her young and provides them a greater change of survival by diverting predators to feast on her rather than on the myriad of new hatchlings.

In a fascinating discovery, scientists have learned that a mother octopus’ senescence is triggered by an optic gland switching from producing hunger-driving hormones to producing a toxic blend of cholesterol precursors and steroids. It provides her just enough strength to care for, caress, fan, siphon and guard her eggs, but not enough energy to survive their birth. An impeccably timed act of ultimate sacrifice and devotion, driven by science and, perhaps, by just a touch of tender loving care.

Further reading:

To learn more about this fascinating end of life behavior, check out the 2023 BBC Documentary Planet Earth III — Episode: “Oceans” (available at Amazon Prime Video: Planet Earth III) featuring groundbreaking footage of Pearl Octopuses as they nest by thermal springs two miles beneath the waves or the 2017 BBC Documentary Blue Planet II— Episode: “Our Blue Planet” or “Green Seas” detailing the supreme sacrifice of Common Octopuses in kelp forests and coral reefs (on Google Play or HBO Max or stream or purchase the individual episodes through the Amazon Prime Video: Blue Planet II landing page).

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning writer whose novel The Year of the Bear and novella I Have Lived were named 2023 and 2024 books of the year, respectively. 589 of Doug’s poems have found homes in 79 literary journals, 9 anthologies and 2 books all around the world. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.