Why does an octopus die soon after mating?

The male dies soon after mating, but the female has to live on to lay the eggs, which aren’t ready immediately. Death comes because the octopus has used up all of his body’s energy in growing, then in mating. It’s like a salmon swimming upstream to mate.

Does the common octopus die after mating?

As with most creatures, the octopus’s main purpose in life is to reproduce. Both the male and female octopuses die soon after mating. The male dies a few months afterward, while female dies shortly after the eggs hatch.

How long would an octopus live if it didnt mate?

Common octopuses, for example, can live as little as two years, but giant octopuses can live up to five years if they don’t mate. In the wild, the big Pacific octopus can live for three to five years.

How do octopuses die?

These behaviours seem to be orchestrated by nervous impulses from something known as the ‘optic gland’. Removal of this gland increases an octopus’s lifespan considerably, so it’s clearly not a simple case of exhaustion. Instead, death seems to be pre- programmed.

What happens when octopuses mate?

After mating, the octopuses showed an uptick in the production of catecholamines, steroids that regulate cholesterol metabolism and insulin-like factors – the first time the optic gland has been linked to a function that doesn’t have something to do with reproduction.

Why did the mother octopus abandon her eggs?

In 1977, researchers removed this gland and found that the octopus’ mothering instincts disappeared. She abandoned her eggs, started feeding again, and went on to live a much longer life. The maturation of the reproductive organs appears to be driven by secretions from the optic gland.

How does the optic gland regulate octopus reproduction?

The finding suggests that the optic gland doesn’t produce just a single hormone to regulate reproduction, but uses multiple signalling pathways, possibly to keep the mother octopus watching over her precious eggs.