While the octopus is a marine animal, this octopus risks it all by leaping out of the water to chase a crab resting on the beach.
This division of eight-armed mollusks includes more than 300 species, creating many unique species of highly intelligent cephalopods that live on the seafloor. While most octopuses are benthic creatures that feed on crustaceans, polychaetes, scallops and mussels, they will occasionally target shallow tidal areas in search of unsuspecting prey.
On land, they are much less graceful, but no less effective, as shown in the video below. Here, an octopus ambushes a careless crab at the edge of a water basin in Yallingup, Western Australia.
Julian Finn, senior curator of marine invertebrates at the Victoria Museum in Australia, said: ‘It’s not uncommon for octopus species to live in the intertidal zone or near the water. shore.
Pools left behind after low tide are often stocked with fascinating treasures, including shellfish and snails. If octopuses remain moist, allowing their bodies to exchange gases, they can survive for short periods of time on land.
Like killer whales ambushing sea lions on the beach, these tiny predators put themselves at risk of catching their prey, but in the end, the risk paid off.