What does “spawn” mean, and why does it kill a mother octopus?

Spawn means to lay eggs, usually for fish, frogs, or sea animals like the octopus in this clip. The word is also a noun for the eggs themselves. For an octopus, spawning has a sad cost: once she has laid her eggs, a mother octopus stops eating completely and guards them until they hatch. Then she dies. She gives her whole life to this one act of spawning.

Scientists call this pattern “semelparity” — an animal reproduces only once, then dies. The mother’s body shuts down her hunger on purpose, through a gland near her eyes, so she cannot leave her eggs even if she wanted to. In the clip: “the octopus does not survive the spawn... as soon as she has spawned, the mama octopus completely stops eating and dedicates herself entirely to caring for the eggs until they hatch.”