Paul the psychic octopus died at the age of 2.5 years recently. He became famous for predicting the results of this year’s World Cup. He died of natural causes.
Paul lived at an aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen. He made his predictions by opening the lid of one of two boxes with the flags of the competing teams. He correctly predicted the winner all of Germany’s matches.
The octopus is a mollusk with two eyes and four pairs of arms with suction cups. It can be found in many part of the ocean especially coral reefs. It has no skeletal structure allowing it to squeeze into tight places. The only hard part of its body is its beak. It has three hearts, two to pump blood through it gills and the third through its body. It usually weighs 33 pounds with an arm span of 14 feet. It has keen eyesight with some species able to recognize colors. With its suction cups, it has a strong sense of touch. It moves by crawling or swimming.
It is a highly intelligent animal. It has a short term and long term memory. Due to its short lifespan caused by endocrine secretions from two optic glands, it is limited to what it can learn. It has a highly complex nervous system with 2/3 localized in the arms. It has been demonstrated that it is trainable. Keeping one as a pet is troublesome because it can figure out how to escape from its tank.
Its primary defense is to hide or a fast escape from predators. It ejects ink containing melanin which acts as a decoy or disguises its scent. When under attack, it will sever one of its arms to act as a decoy. All octopuses are venomous but only the blue ringed species is deadly to humans.
Octopus is a food source in many cultures. It is common in Hawaiian, Asian, Portuguese and Mediterranean cuisines. It is considered an excellent appetizer. A three ounce portion contains 139 calories and is a source of vitamin B3, B12, potassium, phosphorus and selenium.
