Even octopi at the aquarium do it
For months now, Mouse and Ivan, the Seattle Aquarium’s Giant Pacific Octopuses, have been living next door to each other, separated by a pane of glass. The only contact they’ve had has been when they’ve reached their tentacles through the flow-through holes on the partition.
But tomorrow at noon, the partition goes away. On what the aquarium calls the “Octopus Blind Date” (because “Octopus Sex Day” is a little tough to explain to the kiddies), the biologists will set the mood with some roses and hearts and music, and then they’ll let them go for it. With luck there will soon be around 100,000 baby octopus eggs to be cared for.
Nothing says “Valentine’s Day” quite like crazy midday octopus sex.
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I attended this a few years ago. It’s pretty interesting, though you may not see any cephalopod nookie (when I was there the male was hiding from the female, though apparently they mated later).
But here’s the thing: the Octopus is semelparous, so the female will never mate again. In fact, she won’t eat, either. She will spend all her time tending her eggs (moving them around, aerating them by jetting water onto them with her siphon, etc) while she slowly wastes away. After they hatch, she dies.
It always seemed to me this would make a better event for Mother’s Day than Valentine’s day.