“The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.”
Find out more at: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
ok – there’s a photo, a rather accurate description, a write-up, and even a website.
Of course, there’s no such thing as the “Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus”.
The Tree Octopus was a hoax designed by the University of Connecticut in 1998 to test 7th graders’ ability to decipher fake “news” on the internet.
They all failed. Some maintained that there really is a tree octopus even after they were told it was a study/hoax (called belief perseverance).
News media, Social Media, websites and more have run with this hoax, giving it yet more leverage.
Some of us would question the legitimacy of such an outlandish claim, even though it was backed up with a website, photos and more (really, take a look at the site – it’s great!). It shows though, that pre-teens are proven gullible, and all-too-easily influenced by what they see online.
Sadly, many adults are the same way.
