Well, that’s not something you see everyday.
A video of a crab in hot pursuit of a — we must say, tenacious crab — surfaced recently.
The clip shows a large octopus circling a frantic crab at the water’s surface, repeatedly reaching its arms out to snag it.
The agile crab manages to escape the arms of the cephalopod initially, but the octopus eventually gets a grip on the crustacean. After injecting it with paralyzing saliva, it’s lights out for the determined crab. Moments following the successful hunt, the satisfied octopus swims downward into the ocean depths.
Watch the mesmerizing footage below.
On land, they are much less graceful, but no less efficient, as shown in this video below. Here an octopus ambushes an unwary crab at the edge of a tidepool in Yallingup, Western Australia.
Soft-shelled crabs are generally easily injected and ripped apart by octopuses, while hard-shelled animals often have their shells drilled through first. Yikes.
Octopuses feast on a variety of creatures other than crabs, including clams, birds, snails, small fish, and sometimes other octopuses. Often, they’ll bring their prey to their den where they can devour it in safety. Excess prey is discarded outside the den, attracting scavengers like fish and mollusks.
Octopuses are fascinating and intelligent creatures. Studies have shown that they’re capable of learning, remembering specific locations, and using tools. And, some species are known to guard their young for a staggering 4.5 years — the longest known egg-brooding period of any animal — while slowly starving to death. They’re also capable of awe-inspiring camouflage, and at ninety-percent muscle with no bones, they can easily sneak into perplexingly small spaces. One 600-pound octopus was recorded squeezing through a tube the size of a quarter.
Discover more incredible octopus encounters here.
