Most mother octopuses lay a single set of eggs in a lifetime and die after their brood hatches. The scientists who observed the octopus called her four-and-a-half-year brooding period the longest on record for any animal. In other words, no other creature on Earth had held its eggs close to its body and protected them for as long as she did; a story in Reuters called her “mother of the year” in the animal kingdom. The previous octopus record holder, Bathypolypus arcticus, was observed in captivity brooding for fourteen months, which seemed shattering at the time.
