Inky the octopus escaped from the National Aquarium in Napier. 
 
 An octopus at New Zealand's National Aquarium has made a daring escape to the sea by fitting its rugby-ball-sized body through a small pipe. 
 
 Staff at the aquarium in Napier noticed the enclosure, which previously housed two octopuses was left with a single inhabitant earlier this year. 
 
 Inky, a male common New Zealand octopus, had escaped. 
 
 Staff found octopus tracks, which showed he began his journey by slipping through a small gap in the top of his enclosure before travelling across a wet floor. 
 
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 He found a drain, about 150 millimetres in diameter, which led to the sea, and made a dash for freedom. 
 
 Rob Yarrall​ from the National Aquarium said Inky was about the size of a rugby ball but octopuses could stretch themselves to extremes, allowing them to squeeze through almost any space. 
 
 "As long as it's mouth can fit," Yarrall said. 
 
 "Their bodies are squishy but they have a beak, like a parrot." 
 
 Since his disappearance aquarium staff have missed Inky, who was popular with staff and visitors, but they were pleased to see him return to the ocean, Yarrall said. 
 
 The other octopus was unlikely to miss him as octopuses were solitary creatures that preferred to live alone, he said. 
 
 The centre was not actively looking for a new octopus to replace Inky, but if one was to come along they would be happy to accept it, he said. 
 
 Inky was given to the centre in 2014 after a fisherman and aquarium volunteer pulled him out of the ocean in a cray pot near Pania Reef, about half a kilometre north of the port of Napier. 
 
 He had a few battle scars, which included shortened limbs. 
 
 During his time at the aquarium he was entertained with games and toys and he was hand fed fish three times a week. 
 
 A couple of months after he arrived the Napier City Council ran a competition to name the octopus, which attracted more than 100 entries. 
 
 Gerry Townsend's suggestion "Inky" was the winner as voted by aquarium staff as squirting ink was one of the unique escape mechanisms possessed by octopus. 

 Staff believe the common New Zealand octopus fled its enclosure when the lid was left ajar and headed to freedom down a pipe that leads to the sea 
 
 An octopus has made a brazen escape from the national aquarium in New Zealand by breaking out of its tank, slithering down a 50-metre drainpipe and disappearing into the sea. 
 
 In scenes reminiscent of Finding Nemo, Inky – a common New Zealand octopus – made his dash for freedom after the lid of his tank was accidentally left slightly ajar. 
 
 Staff believe that in the middle of the night, while the aquarium was deserted, Inky clambered to the top of his glass enclosure, down the side of the tank and travelled across the floor of the aquarium. 
 
 Rob Yarrell, national manager of the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier, said: “Octopuses are famous escape artists. 
 
 “But Inky really tested the waters here. 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.” 
 
 One theory is that Inky slid across the aquarium floor – a journey of three or four metres – and then, sensing freedom was at hand, into a drainpipe that led directly to the sea. 
 
 The drainpipe was 50 metres long, and opened on to the waters of Hawke’s Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest An annotated series of photos showing how ‘Inky’ the octopus escaped from his tank at the National Aquarium in New Zealand and into the sea via a drainpipe. Photograph: National Aquarium, New Zealand 
 
 Another possible escape route could have involved Inky squeezing into an open pipe at the top of his tank, which led under the floor to the drain. 
 
 “When we came in the next morning and his tank was empty, I was really surprised,” said Yarrell, who has not launched a search for Inky. 
 
 “The staff and I have been pretty sad. But then, this is Inky, and he’s always been a bit of a surprise octopus.” 
 
 Reiss Jenkinson, exhibits keeper at the National Aquarium, said he was absolutely certain Inky was not “taken” or “stolen”. 
 
 “I understand the nature of octopus behaviour very well,” he said. “I have seen octopus on boats slip through bilge pumps. And the security here is too tight for anyone to take Inky, and why would they?” 
 
 Because octopuses have no bones they are able to fit into extremely small spaces, and have been filmed squeezing through gaps the size of coins. They are also understood to be extremely intelligent and capable of using tools. 
 
 At the Island Bay marine education centre in Wellington, an octopus was found to be in the habit of visiting another tank overnight to steal crabs, then returning to its own. 
 
 Another at the centre, Ozymandias, was thought to have broken a world record for opening a jar before being it was released into the ocean. 
 
 Inky was brought to the national aquarium a number of years ago by a local fisherman who found him caught in a crayfish pot. 
 
 
 
 He was scarred and “rough looking”, with shortened limbs, said Yarrell. “He had been living on the reef and fighting with fish so he wasn’t in the best shape.” 
 
 According to Yarrell, Inky – who is about the size of a rugby ball – was an “unusually intelligent” octopus. “He was very friendly, very inquisitive, and a popular attraction here. We have another octopus, Blotchy, but he is smaller than Inky, and Inky had the personality.” 
 
 
 
 The aquarium has no plans to step up security as a result of the escape as Inky was “one out of the bag”, but the staff were “increasingly aware of what octopuses can actually do”. 
 
 Although the aquarium is not actively searching for a replacement for Inky, if a fisherman brought in another octopus it might be willing to take it on. 
 
 “You never know,” said Yarrell. “There’s always a chance Inky could come home to us.” 
 
 • This article was amended on 14 April 2016 to correct the lead/led homophone. 
 

– At New Zealand's National Aquarium, workers thought Inky the octopus had settled in nicely after he was brought in by a fisherman who found him in a lobster pot in 2014. Turns out he was just biding his time. Staff at the Napier aquarium believe that after the lid of Inky's tank was left slightly ajar one night, he climbed out, slid across the wet floor, and escaped through a drainpipe that led to the sea, reports Stuff.co.nz. The football-sized, freedom-loving cephalopod would have had to squeeze through a pipe six inches diameter for more than 150 feet to make his escape. "Octopuses are famous escape artists," aquarium manager Rob Yarrell tells the Guardian. "But Inky really tested the waters here." He says Inky—who had games, toys, and three hand-fed meals of fish a week at the aquarium—is an "unusually intelligent" octopus who was "very friendly, very inquisitive, and a popular attraction here," with more personality than Blotchy, the other resident octopus. After the amazing escape, "the staff and I have been pretty sad," Yarrell says. "But then, this is Inky, and he’s always been a bit of a surprise octopus." (This ghostlike octopus recently spotted in the depths off Hawaii is believed to be an adorable new species.)