Great story about Aurora the octopus and her maternal instincts.
Aurora, believed to be 3 or 4, was about the size of a grapefruit when she was found in 2002 living inside an old tire in front of the SeaLife Center.
Aquarium staff arranged a blind date with an old guy (who was all hands), and the fling produced the desired results. But, after months of waiting, staff concluded that the eggs were sterile and made preparations to move her from her tank.
Aurora probably had some moments of “quiet desperation” last Tuesday while several hundred gallons of water were drained from her tank, Hocking said.
As the water went down, one of the aquarists placed some of the eggs that had fallen from the sides of the tank on a rock shelf. Even then, Aurora persevered.
“She didn’t want to leave them. As the water was going down she was going down with it. She would spray a burst of water on the rocks on top of them,” Kokal said.
She was right, they were wrong, and luckily a sharp-eyed intern spotted the mistake. Her brood of thousands will hatch in the spring.
POLLENATRIX 