A video of an octopus lashing out at a man on a beach in Western Australia last month has gone viral.
Geologist and author Lance Karlson was about to go for a swim near the resort where he and his family were staying on March 19, when he saw what he believed was the tail of a stingray hitting a seagull, Reuters said. Upon closer inspection, Karlson and his 2-year-old daughter discovered it was an octopus.
He took a video of the creature swimming next to him in shallow water before suddenly firing its arms at him. After setting up his family in a sun protection tent, he put on a mask and went into the water alone to explore crabs. Once he was swimming, the octopus found him again and used his arms to fall to Karlson, who felt a powerful stab in his neck and back.
“My glasses got fogged, the water was suddenly cloudy and I remember being shocked and confused,” Karlson told the news agency.
He later uploaded the images to social media, calling it the “worst octopus” in Geographe Bay. “After chasing a seagull, it decided my daughter and I deserved a flogging!” he wrote on Instagram. “I later discovered his home among a crab graveyard, where it came after me again!”
The octopus left red marks on Karlson’s neck and upper body. But he told Reuters he felt no animosity towards the animal.
Dr. Jennifer Mather, a professor at the University of Lethbridge who has studied octopuses for decades, saw the viral video and told CBS News on Friday that since the man approached a crab graveyard, it’s clear he has gotten too close to the octopus’s hideout. . She said the crabs were essentially the dump.
“Fish often catch the scallops, and the octopus sometimes targets what we called a ‘slap,'” she said.
According to Mather, octopuses don’t usually behave like this, since they are shy animals.
“It’s very unusual for an octopus to be aggressive in this way, but it has distinct personalities, and you could describe them as irritable or reactive,” Mather said. “The man was in no danger, the octopus just warned him.”