Amazing Moms of the Animal Kingdom

Amazing Moms of the Animal Kingdom
Stuart Westmorland / CORBIS

Giant Pacific Octopus
A female octopus has only one goal: to have one successful brood of eggs in her lifetime. She will lay about 200,000 eggs in her lair and defend them at any cost. During the one month of caring for her eggs, the female is starved almost to death and may even ingest one of her own arms before she will leave her eggs for food. Once the eggs hatch, the offspring float around in blooms of plankton while their mother wanders out of her lair, too weak to defend herself, often falling prey to predators.

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