Inky the octopus, of New Zealand’s National Aquarium in Napier, gained instant celebrity when it was revealed that he escaped his tank, crawled across the aquarium floor, and made it to a discharge pipe to the Pacific ocean. Inky was already well known to the coastal city of Napier. He was rescued in 2004 after being caught and injured in a crayfish pot. In a public contest he was named Inky through popular vote.

Aquarists knew he had made it too the Pacific by the suction cup trail he left across the aquarium floor.

“Inky had said see ya to his tank-mate, slipped through a gap left by maintenance workers at the top of his enclosure and, as evidenced by the tracks, made his way across the floor to a six-inch-wide drain. He squeezed his football-sized body in — octopuses are very malleable, aquarium manager Rob Yarrall told the New Zealand website Stuff — and made a break for the Pacific.”

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