Terrifying Video Shows A Tourist Picking Up One Of The World’s Most Venomous Animals
Feb 05, 2019 by apost team
Some animals in the world are cute, friendly and totally safe for humans to interact with. Most animal lovers almost instinctively want to reach out and touch a creature, no matter what it is. However, with the wrong animal, this type of overly-curious behavior is quite dangerous.
This was exemplified in a terrifying viral video from 2019, in which one very lucky person interacts with one of the world's deadliest creatures. This particular video shows a vacationing tourist picking up a tiny octopus that appears to be harmless. Though it is quite small and seems to be non-threatening, the reality of the situation is far from that.
In the video, we see a close-up of someone's hand handling this squishy little creature. Small, yellow and brown, the animal in the tourist's hand is an octopus that has bright blue rings all over its body. It's a blue-ringed octopus and one bite can kill up to 26 adults!
Thankfully, the person only handles the animal for a short period before placing it back in the water. Luckily they weren't bitten and lived to tell the tale but things could have gone south very easily. What's more frightening is that the octopus' blue rings only appear when they are mating or feeling disturbed, so it's likely the octopus was getting ready to defend itself before the person put it back in the water.
This incident was a true stroke of luck but surprisingly, it wasn't the first of its kind, as others have done exactly the same thing and also gotten away alive. Let's take a look.
In the video from 2019, the blue-ringed octopus is sitting in the palm of a man's hand. The camera focuses on it closely before the person lowers his hand to the water and drops the octopus in, but not without having to shake it off with a bit of effort. While the clip might seem innocuous, especially with how tiny and adorable the octopus looks, it's a lot more terrifying when you learn just how deadly the sea animal is.
While many people may not be familiar with this kind of octopus, anyone that is aware of the telltale pattern of this sea creature knows the truth: the blue-ringed octopus can be incredibly deadly to humans. According to National Geographic, all types of octopi actually carry poisonous venom that they can use when paralyzing their victims. While most octopi are completely harmless to humans, the blue-ringed is not.
With one bite from the blue-ringed octopus, the tetrodotoxin it carries can be released into its victim's body. This toxin can be 1,000 times more powerful and effective than cyanide. Within minutes, the blue-ringed octopus' victim can become paralyzed. In theory, it only takes one-half milligram of this octopus' venom to kill a human.
Once the octopus releases its venom, the symptoms will begin within a matter of minutes. These signs include difficulty swallowing, trouble with pronunciation, excessive salivation and similar symptoms. As the venom sets in, these symptoms worsen. A victim will experience muscular weakness, paralysis, tremors, and incoordination if they do not get immediate treatment.
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According to the Divers Alert Network, it isn't always easy to recognize these types of octopi. The blue rings are only displayed if the animal is mating, hunting or disturbed, which makes this story even more unnerving as the blue rings were quite prominent on the octopus in the video. Whoever was holding the octopus in the video is quite lucky to be alive! Thankfully, the tourist in the viral video released the octopus back into the water quickly. It's likely that the tourist had no idea how much danger they were in.
But this isn't the only time a tourist has picked up the incredibly dangerous cephalopod. Earlier this year, a Virginia woman was holidaying in Bali when she did the exact same thing and also recorded a video of it. Kaylin Phillips posted the video to her Instagram thinking it was a cute moment of her and her friends handling an octopus before other users began alerting her of the dangers. Appearing on Inside Edition, Phillips said:
"I saw it in the water and I thought, you know my initial reaction was to just pick it up."
After being informed by fellow users that it was in fact the blue-ringed octopus, she said:
"You've just held this creature that not only could have killed all three of you but apparently if there were 26 of us, we all would have been gone."
She adds that it was a "shocker" to learn just how dangerous the little animal really was. Both Phillips and the unknown man from the 2019 video should serve as warnings to the public to tread with caution when coming across animals in the wild and that not every creature should be handled or even approached.
What do you think about these two videos of people handling the incredibly deadly blue-ringed octopus? Have you ever had a close call like this? Pass this on to everyone you know to spread awareness of handling unknown animals.