Tiger Octopus

Tiger Octopus - Tacopara

*Enteroctopus Tigris*

Animal, Octopus

* Largest Recorded Arm Length: 10 metres

* Average Life Expectancy: 12.5 years

* Longest Recorded Lifespan: 18 years

## Description

The Tiger Octopus is a large and highly intelligent species of Octopus endemic to the coral reefs of the Onshian Sea. The Tiger Octopus is roughly the same size as the Giant Pacific Octopus, although the largest examples of the Giant Pacific Octopus are significantly larger than the largest examples of the Tiger Octopus. Like all octopuses, the Tiger Octopus can change the colour and texture of its skin at will, but its most common and "natural" state is a dull red colour with very dark red stripes running across it, reminiscent of a tiger's skin, giving the octopus its name.

The Tiger Octopus is the apex predator in the Onshian Sea and so it has no in-built fear of potentially threatening creatures such as Humans, and as a result it is generally very friendly towards people.

The Tiger Octopus is widely regarded to be the most intelligent marine animal on the planet, exhibiting a degree of intelligence far in excess of other octopuses or other intelligent marine animals such as dolphins. They also have the most developed sense of hearing out of any octopus, despite the fact that octopuses normally have poor hearing. They are experts at solving problems they would never encounter in the wild, such as solving complex mazes and then memorising the path through them. They have also been known to use tools in a more complex manner than other octopuses, and have been known to use rocks and even crabs as weapons. Tiger Octopuses in captivity have also been known to understand fairly complex instructions from their owners, and the most intelligent examples have exhibited a basic understanding of Human spoken languages.

They cannot make noise, but they communicate with each other in a complex manner by changing the colour and texture of their skin and making movements with their arms. Scientists have been able to identify many different emotional responses from this, but have only been able to decode a small portion of their "language". They are also able to converse with people in this manner, but conversations are restricted by the fact that their language is not very well understood. As a result, scientists have been able to confidently declare that the Tiger Octopus has highly developed emotions, with clearly identifiable responses for emotions such as happiness, sadness, humour and possibly also love, although this is highly debated. Tiger Octopuses have distinct personalities, although they are all generally inquisitive and playful.

Tiger Octopuses are monogamous and will spend a long time choosing and establishing a relationship with their mate. They will never choose another mate, even if their mate dies, and Tiger Octopuses normally experience a state that could be loosely defined as depression when their mate dies. Many scientists argue that Tiger Octopuses love their mates, as they experience significant grief when their mate dies and exhibit strong positive emotional responses whenever they are with their mate. Tiger Octopuses have also been known to defend their mate to the death. They have also been known to make friendships, both with other Tiger Octopuses and with people.

Tiger Octopuses do not lay many eggs, but each youngling has a relatively high chance of survival so they do not need to lay many. Tiger Octopus eggs take approximately 8 months to hatch, and the younglings become self-sufficient after 6 months. The mother will devote all her time to defending and caring for the eggs, and will also care for her children during the first six months of their lives (when they cannot look after themselves). The father will devote all his time to getting food for the family and also protecting them from harm. Although the children do eventually leave, they have been known to visit their parents, and show visible signs of grief when their parents (and/or siblings) die. The Tiger Octopus is the only known species of octopus to be able to breed and raise eggs multiple times throughout its life, due to its unique family structure. Male octopuses from other species die after mating and female octopuses exhaust and starve themselves so much while looking after the eggs that they die once the eggs hatch, giving them an average lifespan of 2 years. This is not so for Tiger Octopuses, who develop families with two dedicated parents that care for each other, allowing them to live for approximately 12-13 years in the wild and up to 18 years in captivity, significantly longer than any other octopus.

Tiger Octopuses have a piece of territory to themselves which they hunt in, and other Tiger Octopuses normally respect each other's territory, but "border disputes" sometimes happen. A pair of mates will share territory and live together, and if their territory is adjacent they will usually combine both their territory into one. Fights over territory rarely end in serious injury or death, and they mostly consist of a "wrestling match" where the two fighting octopuses will lock arms and push against each other until one grows too tired to continue. Rivalries between Tiger Octopuses do sometimes occur, due to a variety of reasons such as territory or food disputes, and battles between rivals can quickly become very violent. As long as they respect each other's territory, mates and food, however, Tiger Octopuses are friendly to one another and will sometimes help each other hunt. There are a few examples of Tiger Octopuses engaging in rudimentary trading, such as food for tools, and since Tiger Octopuses have specific tastes like people do, and they will often swap food they dislike for food they like.

Tiger Octopuses appear to be the only genuinely charitable organism besides humans that exists, in that they will go out of their way to help others while expecting nothing in return. They will even do this for other species (at least, the ones they do not prey upon). Tiger Octopuses have been observed freeing creatures that were stuck, finding shells for hermit crabs or for sheltering fish eggs, and even sharing food with other creatures and kind of keeping them as pets. Other creatures in the Onshian Sea are usually receptive to their help, for the simple fact that they can see the octopus trying to help - if the Tiger Octopus is hunting you, you are unlikely to see it at all. Given the high intelligence and emotional capacity of Tiger Octopuses, it is possible that they view themselves as the guardians or custodians of the sea, which is why they help others.

Tiger Octopuses, despite their friendliness with people, are extremely vicious and efficient hunters. They possess immense strength and a powerful paralysing venom. This, combined with the excellent camouflage and fast speed typical of octopuses, makes them the apex predator in the Onshian Sea, as they are experts at both ambushing and sneaking up on unsuspecting targets.

Tiger Octopuses live in a very particular ecosystem and are extremely vulnerable to changing water temperatures. They are commonly the poster child of environmentalist movements throughout the Empire, as they are the most famous animal most at risk of climate change in the Empire.

## As Food

Tiger Octopuses taste the same as other octopuses, however they are not often hunted due to the fact that they are very difficult to fish (their intelligence and agility makes it easy for them to slip away). In recent times evidence of their high intelligence has also surfaced, which has greatly discouraged people from eating them.

## Conservation

There are naturally few numbers of Tiger Octopuses, although they are very rarely fished and there is much talk in Onshi of banning them from being fished. As discussed earlier, they are vulnerable to climate change, particularly as their small numbers do not provide much of a safety net for the species, and a recent decline of the population in the exceptionally hot summer of 2018 is the first evidence that they are being truly threatened by the planet warming.