Hands (or tentacles) down, the giant Pacific octopus at the Seattle Aquarium is the one to watch at feeding time?if you can stomach it. Every day at noon and 4 p.m., a gutsy staff member lowers a spear of skewered fish and squid down to Buster, the aquarium's 22-pound, almost-2-year-old resident octopus. Sometimes it takes an hour, but sometimes all that's needed is a minute for Buster's huge tentacles to dart out and completely engulf the food off the rod, where it disappears into a mass of arms and suction cups, vaguely reminiscent of a boa constrictor slowly choking its prey to death. When this happens, Buster usually gets a wholehearted round of applause from his enthusiastic audience, then retreats to his den. Even if it's only two minutes of action, it's definitely worth the stampede of crying kids ("Is he gonna eat me, Mom?") to see Buster go to work.?Britt Thorson