Octopus Mother of the Year

Mother of the Year in the animal kingdom could go to a deep sea octopus who spent at least four and one half years fearlessly guarding and caring for her eggs before they hatched.

The effort breaks the world record for egg brooding and is documented in the latest issue of PLoS ONE.

Bruce Robison, a researcher at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and his colleagues spotted the vigilant deep sea octopus mother in May 2007 during regular surveys at a Pacific Ocean site in the Monterey Canyon called "Midwater 1." The female Graneledone boreopacifica was clinging to a rocky ledge just above the floor of the canyon about 4,600 feet below the ocean surface.

Over the next 4.5 years, the researchers dove to this exact same site 18 times, according to the paper. During each visit, they saw the same octopus. She was easy to spot, as she had distinctive scars on her body, possibly sustained while fighting off predators hoping to snatch her eggs.

The mother octopus never moved from her spot during that entire time. She did not even feed or show interest in food, such as small crabs and shrimp, which would float by every so often.

She was solely focused on watching over her eggs and bathing the eggs in fresh, oxygenated seawater to keep them from being covered with silt or debris.