The video showing an octopus dragging a man to a beach last month in Western Australia has gone viral.
Geologist and author Lance Karlson was about to swim near the complex where he and his family were staying on March 19, when he saw what he believed was the tail tail hitting a seagull, according to Reuters. After a new inspection, Karlson and his 2-year-old daughter discovered it was an octopus.
He took a video of the creature swimming near him in shallow water before he suddenly threw his arms at her. Then, after setting up his family in a sunscreen tent, he put on some glasses and went into the water alone to explore the crab shells. Once swimming, the octopus found him again and used his arms to attack Karlson, who felt a sharp sting in his neck and back.
“My glasses blurred, the water suddenly became cloudy and I remember I was shocked and confused,” Karlson told the news agency.
He later posted the images on social media and called him the “most angry pop” in Geographe Bay. “After going to get a seagull, my daughter decided and we deserved a pig’s stroke!” wrote on Instagram. “I later discovered his home in a crab cemetery, where he came after me.”
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 Lethbridge University who has studied pop for decades, watched the viral video and told CBS News on Friday that since the man approached a cemetery of crabs, it is clear that he got too close to the pop shelter. He said crab shells were essentially his pile of garbage.
“Fish usually sweep away the remains of the shell and the octopus sometimes points to what we called‘ slap ’against them,” he said.
According to Mather, octopuses do not behave this way, considering that they are shy animals.
“It’s very unusual for an octopus to be aggressive like that, but it has clear personalities and could be described as irritable or reactive,” Mather said. “The man was in no danger, the octopus was just warning him.”