AQUARIUM DRAMA
MOTHER OCTOPUS'S FATE
Marine zoologists have been keenly interested in, and have made an intensive study of, a wholesale hatching in the aquarium at the Taronga Park Zoo. The mother was an octopus, and it is believed that this is probably the first batch of octopuses hatched in captivity. Her brood numbered, it is estimated 250,000. The hatching ended in tragedy. As the last young octopus struggled from his egg, the mother, who had made zoological history, collapsed and died. To the very last second her powerful bellows were sending a spray of serated water over the last of her brood. The laws of Nature, in the opinion of leading marine zoologists here, demanded that the mother must die as soon as the eggs were hatched. Under natural conditions, the majority of the minute young would either be eaten by other fish or succumb to other natural hardships.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 23058, 8 December 1936, Page 10
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150AQUARIUM DRAMA Otago Daily Times, Issue 23058, 8 December 1936, Page 10
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