Visitors of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in California were shocked by a friendly octopus rising from the water, walking on land, and giving a crab as he passed by. The visitors had been walking along the coastline, spotting interesting animals and marine life when the red octopus caught their eye.
All of a sudden, it started creeping out from the water and onto the land.
The spectators were shocked.
“This is unbelievable!” cried one; “Oh my God!” yelled another. But in an interview with Scientific American, Julian Finn, Senior curator of marine invertebrates at the Museum Victoria in Australia, says octopuses walking on land is more common than people think. “Crawling along out of water is not uncommon for species of octopus that live in the intertidal or near shore,” he says. But because they’re nocturnal creatures, it’s rare for people to catch them doing it.
Scientific American says, “After an octopus has cleared one tidal pool of food, it will often then haul itself back onto land in search of the next pool, which […] it might be able to spot visually or detect ahead with its outstretched arms.”
I’m not sure if that’s what this octopus was doing, but whatever the case, it sure is incredible to see.
At some point during the video, the reserve visitors notice the octopus has been carrying a crab shell while it walks. To everyone’s disbelief, when the slimy animal makes its way past them, it suddenly drops the specimen, as if offering them a gift.
The video, uploaded to YouTube by tuantube in June of 2011, has been watched nearly 8 MILLION times. People just don’t know what to think after seeing a squishy octopus hauling itself across the land.
According to ShareTap, studies have shown that octopuses are one of the smartest marine animals. They can solve puzzles, have distinct personalities, and use their suction cups to escape different situations— all reasons that led the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve employees to think that the octopus was offering the crab to the visitors as a gift. Finn, however, noting that octopuses often walk on land to hunt, thinks this octopus’s behavior imply less of a gift, and more of a practical action.
He tells Scientific American, “Octopuses often carry prey items when foraging, returning to their lairs to consume them. It’s possible that the octopus in the video was either finished consuming the contents of the crab or was too tired to continue carrying it on land.”
Whatever the reasoning, I’m just glad I got to see it!
Check out the footage below.
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