A well-loved octopus known as Inky recently escaped from the National Aquarium in New Zealand.

Aquarium manager Rob Yarrall says the lid to the octopus' tank was left slightly open after maintenance one night. "He found this rather tempting, climbed out and he managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean, and off he went, and didn't even leave us a message, just off and went!"

The octopus escaped earlier this year but hit the New Zealand national press Tuesday.

According to Sy Montgomery, author of "The Soul of an Octopus", octopus escapes from aquariums are common. Montgomery said, "They can squeeze through the tiniest spaces and easily, a 100-pound octopus can squeeze through an opening the size of an orange."

The drain pipe in the New Zealand aquarium had a width of 6 inches. Octopuses can normally fit themselves in an opening as small as their mouths, or beaks.

Montgomery says octopuses get out of aquariums so often not because of their Houdini-like escape talent or because they're lonely but because they are generally super inquisitive.

Aquarium manager Yarrall says Inky arrived in the aquarium from a nearby reef just a few years back, so it's possible he'll be able to survive in the wild.