Inky the octopus made a run for it.
New Zealand's National Aquarium, the pen from which Inky escaped.
A clever and conniving octopus at the National Aquarium in New Zealand saw its chance for freedom and seized it — slithering out of its tank and disappearing days ago, thus far not to be seen again.
Aquarium staffers said Inky appears to have vanished in the middle of the night, taking advantage of someone accidentally leaving the lid of its tank slightly ajar.
The staff said Inky would have had to slide down a 160-foot drainpipe to break out of the aquarium. The drain pipe in the Napier aquarium leads into Hawke’s Bay, on the East Coast of New Zealand’s North Island, where Inky presumably is now.
With Inky missing in action, aquarium workers were left wondering where it all went wrong for the sneaky cephalopod, who had been there since 2014.
“Octopuses are famous escape artists. But Inky really tested the waters here,” the aquarium's national manager, Rob Yarrall, told The Guardian.
“I don’t think he was unhappy with us, or lonely, as octopus are solitary creatures. But he is such a curious boy. He would want to know what’s happening on the outside. That’s just his personality.”
Great escape: Inky the octopus legs it to freedom from New Zealand aquarium https://t.co/IfuZbS32NNvia @guardian pic.twitter.com/D14TaYhazd
— Oceanwire (@Oceanwire) April 13, 2016Yarrall said the aquarium has not begun an official search for Inky, but feels confident the tentacled trickster was not stolen.
For now, the aquarium is simply left wondering what will become of the one who got away.
“You never know,” Yarrall told The Guardian.
“There’s always a chance Inky could come home to us.”
Yarrell added to New Zealand Radio: "He didn't even leave us a message."