Finally this study revealed multiple paternity or polyandry as a reproductive strategy in giant Pacific
octopuses. MLRelate and Colony analyses suggest a mixture of full sibings (FS) and half siblings (HS)
within each female octopuses egg clutch with an average of 64% of fertilized embryos full siblings and
38% half siblings (Table 3). At the individual egg string level Gerud analysis suggest polyandry of
between two to three males fathering a female’s eggs within a string and up to four males in total
contributing to the progeny within the sampled eggs from a single females clutch or den. In addition
Colony analysis suggested that not all males were equally successful with one male thought to have sired
progeny in all three dens sampled (male 4), two males siring progeny in two dens (males 1 and 3), and
two other males represented in only one of the dens (males 2 and 9). While polyandry was found in all
three dens only one female’s clutch was sired by four males (Den 9 was sired by males 1, 3, 4 and male
9, the one resident adult male sampled).