The real story
Inky was a common New Zealand octopus who had been caught in a crayfish pot and brought to the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier. One night in early 2016 the lid of his tank was left with a small gap. He climbed out, slid three or four metres across the floor, and found a drain about 15 centimetres wide that runs some 50 metres down to Hawke Bay.
Staff worked out the route from the wet trail he left behind. It was possible because an octopus has no skeleton: the only hard part of its body is its beak, so it can pour itself through any opening bigger than that. About two-thirds of an octopus's neurons sit in its arms rather than its brain. Inky was never seen again.
