A female pearl octopus broods her eggs in 2022 at the "octopus garden" near the Davidson Seamount off the California coast. (MBARI) WASHINGTON — Most octopuses lead solitary lives.

This 2022 image from video provided by MBARI shows a female pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robustus) brooding her eggs at the “octopus garden,” near the Davidson Seamount off the California coast ...

Five years ago, a group of scientists stumbled upon 20,000 pearl octopuses brooding their eggs near the base of an extinct volcano, 80 miles off of the Monterey coast. They had discovered the ...

A mother pearl octopus guards her clutch of eggs at the Octopus Garden near Monterey. (Photo courtesy of MBARI) By Elise Overgaard UPDATED: August 26, 2023 at 2:58 PM EST ...

Octopus are known to be sedentary creatures, which is why it surprised researchers when large congregations of pearl octopus moms were found huddled together to protect their newly laid eggs on ...

This 2022 image from video provided by MBARI shows a female pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robustus) brooding her eggs at the "octopus garden," near the Davidson Seamount off the California coast at a ...

Grapefruit-sized pearl octopus incubate their nests upside down with their arms tucked around them. They defend their nests until the eggs hatch, not even leaving to eat. (Photo courtesy of MBARI) ...

An aggregation of female pearl octopuses nest at the "octopus garden," near the Davidson Seamount off the California coast at a depth of approximately 10,500 feet. Scientists were startled to find ...

The researchers found that eggs at this site hatch after about 21 months — far shorter than the four years or more it takes for other known deep-sea octopus eggs.