Oxygen consumption in movement byoctopus

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Abstract
Octopuses were made to walk in a closed annular respirometer, and the O2 cost of locomotion determined. It is 253 .+-. 8 ml O2 Kg-1 Km-1 for an octopus of 500 g at 22.degree. C traveling at 0.34 Km h-1, .apprx. 3 times the cost of swimming for a fish similar size and 1/3 the cost of tetrapod walking on land. Maximum O2 uptake was .apprx. 2.4 .times. the routine uptake. The animal is able to sustain a small O2 debt (of the order of 19 ml Kg-1) much of which would appear to be accumulated during the first 5 or 10 min of enforced locomotion. The cost of walking by octopus is compared with the cost of jet-propelled swimming in liquid.