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Remember that playground trick of tapping someone on the far shoulder and swivel 360 degrees before finding you? That’s the sophisticated predatory tool used by the large Pacific striped octopus. On seeing a shrimp, the octopus sneaks up on its, extends one arm over the unsuspecting prey and taps it on the far side of its body. This scares the shrimp into other seven waiting arms of the octopus.

University of California marine biologist who has been studying the animal says he’s never seen anything like this behavior from others of the species. Most octopuses are not so subtle and will jump on they prey or ambush them or simply poke around in holes till they find something suitable to eat and snatch it up.

The large Pacific striped octopus’ un-octopus-like behavior isn’t limited to its eating habits but also extends to mating. Other types of male octopuses maintain a safe distance from the females of their kind. This is because even though they want to pass on their genes to create new generations of octopuses, the females that are usually larger and hungrier might just strangle and eat them. So a male sits near the female and extends only his mating arm far enough to reach under the female’s mantle and inseminate her. There's even a kind of octopus with a detachable penis that helps save its life.

Not so, with the large Pacific striped octopus. Researcher have observed their intimate courtship - sharing den through the mating period, beak to beak and sucker to sucker as if kissing and cuddling. Also unlike other octopuses, the female Pacific striped does not die after laying eggs but mates and multiples several times in her lifetime.