Octunado?

February 23, 2015 1:27 PM

Octopi have proven themselves to be intelligent creatures time and time again. However, one Australian octopus made his or her cephalopod brothers and sisters proud by taking a traditionally water-based activity (hunting) and applying a unique twist.
posted by Fister Roboto (38 comments total)

I forgot! There's some salty language at the very end.
posted by Fister Roboto at 1:27 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

They eat seagulls too.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 1:30 PM on February 23, 2015

I have seen this happen in person! It was almost as startling as the time I was dangling my feet into the water below a bridge near the San Diego Bay and a giant stingray took it upon himself to skim over my toes and say hello as he used his 5 foot wingspan to merrily splash water onto my jeans. Stuff like this makes me wish I'd stuck with marine biology instead of going to film school.
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:32 PM on February 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

I forgot! There's some salty language at the very end.

To be fair, she was just translating what the crab said.
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:36 PM on February 23, 2015 [19 favorites]

I, for one, welcome our new Octopus overloads.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:43 PM on February 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Holy fucking Dagon, watch the bit where the octopus is dragging the poor crab back to the water - you'll realize where HPL was coming from with Cthulhu.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:48 PM on February 23, 2015 [8 favorites]

*whistles innocently*
posted by Earthtopus at 1:55 PM on February 23, 2015 [49 favorites]

Yeah, something about the voiceover at the end of the first link -- "It seems the octopus is about to take a leap ahead in the evolutionary scheme... there may be no holding back its formidable intelligence..." -- put me in mind of another thematically similar scene.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:55 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another om nom nom video, a little higher up the food chain.
posted by Bee'sWing at 1:57 PM on February 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

I love those little guys. Gotta figure a way to increase their life spans.
posted by Trochanter at 1:58 PM on February 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Reminds me of those French catfish hunting pigeons.
posted by Seamus at 2:08 PM on February 23, 2015

'Charlene! There's an octopus eating a crab!'

Australian much?

Nice use of tentacles to walk out of the water. Very curvy.
posted by asok at 2:12 PM on February 23, 2015

Trochanter: "I love those little guys. Gotta figure a way to increase their life spans."

Oh really?
posted by Splunge at 2:21 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Cephalopods are so neato. I'm pescetarian but I recently decided to stop eating them. As tasty as they are, they're just too awesome and smart.
posted by brundlefly at 2:30 PM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

"I love those little guys. Gotta figure a way to increase their life spans."

In recent years the global economy has got me wondering what it could do with the addition of a non-mammalian perspective.

I'm mostly joking.
posted by IShouldBeStudyingRightNow at 2:33 PM on February 23, 2015

This seems to be part of a weird octopi trading system or octopus to octopus challenge. You see, there's at least one other video of a land-walking octopus who leaves a crab behind. The people thought it was a gift for them, but why would that octopus have a gift for people?
posted by filthy light thief at 2:45 PM on February 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

I love those little guys. Gotta figure a way to increase their life spans.

No need—cephalopods have the ability to sleep eternally in death then, after strange aeons, return when the stars are right again.
posted by The Tensor at 2:52 PM on February 23, 2015 [19 favorites]

Cephalopods are so neato. I'm pescetarian but I recently decided to stop eating them. As tasty as they are, they're just too awesome and smart

Thanks.
posted by The Whelk at 3:12 PM on February 23, 2015 [19 favorites]

I was fishing in Sydney Harbour with my dad as a kid when I hooked a big one, and then as I started reeling it in there was this sharp snag, like I was pulling the catch through a bunch of seaweed. Anyway, I was sure that I had caught a big fish so I hauled it in, having to walk backwards because it was too hard to wind. What should pop out of the water but a giant octopus attached to my giant fish. I watched in horror as the cephalopod slowly devoured my giant catch and resolved never to go fishing again. Bloody octopuses.
posted by Quilford at 3:12 PM on February 23, 2015 [11 favorites]

First they came for the crabs and I said nothing because I was not a crab.

Then they came for the seagulls and I said nothing because I was not a seagull.

When they came for me I said nothing because they started by covering my face and smothering me.
posted by GuyZero at 3:18 PM on February 23, 2015 [35 favorites]

So fascigusting.
posted by gottabefunky at 3:24 PM on February 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

why would that octopus have a gift for people

It wasn't a gift. It was a warning.
posted by imnotasquirrel at 3:46 PM on February 23, 2015 [7 favorites]

Who can blame it, crabs are delicious.
posted by codacorolla at 3:47 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Who can blame it, crabs are delicious.

There's also grainy security camera footage (covered up by the government to prevent a panic) showing a pair of octopuses hitting the grocery store for garlic and butter.
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:04 PM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Octobligatory
posted by perhapsolutely at 4:34 PM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Land octopi are nothing new. Some of them have even adapted to living in trees.
posted by scalefree at 4:34 PM on February 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

You beat me by mere seconds. Mrph.
posted by scalefree at 4:35 PM on February 23, 2015

There is nothing not awesome about octopi.
posted by Ruki at 4:48 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

truth.
posted by Busithoth at 4:51 PM on February 23, 2015

The link that scalefree and perhapsolutely offer seems to be a hoax. But octopodes are so wonderful that I can't be entirely sure.
posted by JHarris at 4:56 PM on February 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Apparently they also like older women.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:07 PM on February 23, 2015

Well, that about wraps it up for us vertebrates.
posted by edheil at 5:13 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I clicked the link to that video blind a few days ago; as freaky as it is, it's even freakier when you start out thinking that you're looking at an aerial shot of a land formation:

"Oh, that's neat, it's like there's a moat around that big gray hil- OH MY FUCK LOOK AT THAT MONSTER CRA- oh, wait, it's a regular crab, just a guy with a handheld cam- OH MY FUCK THE OCTOPUSESES HAVE GONE TERRESTRIAL!!!"

It's quite the horrorcoaster.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:04 PM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I've said it before, but somebody with a boatload of education in the field than said it to me like this: "Octopi are crazy malevolently intelligent."
posted by Sphinx at 6:31 PM on February 23, 2015

I love those little guys. Gotta figure a way to increase their life spans.

Cat says no.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:44 PM on February 23, 2015

Apparently they also like older women

Crap, I just noticed I linked to the wrong video! Here's the whole scene I meant to link to.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:07 PM on February 23, 2015

Nope
posted by e-man at 9:26 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

*whistles innocently*
posted by Earthtopus

*whistles malevolently*
posted by FatherDagon at 9:18 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]