Octopus surprises free diver with tentacled hug
Talk about a “cuddlefish.”
An Australian free diver got a closer wildlife encounter than perhaps intended after a gregarious octopus wrapped her face in a tentacled embrace. Footage of the molluscular make-out session has since gone viral on social media.
“When a huge Maori Octopus wants a kiss what do you do??? You let her kiss you,” reads the caption to the Instagram video posted Wednesday by cephalopod smooch recipient Julia Casey. In the clip, Casey can be seen hovering in the water, trying to capture the Maori octopus — the third-largest in the world — on camera, reports Yahoo.com.
However, her oceanic experience gets more intimate than anticipated when the mollusk envelopes her mask like a “facehugger” from the sci-fi movie “Alien” in an apparent attempt to steal a “kiss.” Fortunately, the diver is able to wriggle free before the inquisitive creature can get a firm grip.
The subaquatic smooch occurred while Casey and a companion were free diving — diving without an oxygen tank — in Port Phillip Bay in southern Australia, according to Yahoo.
Suffice it to say, Casey’s unusual encounter made quite a splash on Instagram. “This is incredible; what a beautiful animal. She’s so curious!” said one ‘Gram gawker.
“She’s going to give you a lot of hikkies [sic],” joked another.
However, it was unlikely the mollusk was trying to go all “The Shape of Water” on her. Peter Godfrey-Smith, a philosophy professor at University of Sydney, says octopi are naturally curious creatures who exhibit “exploratory behaviors” to evaluate their surroundings.
And in the realm of interspecies encounters, Casey’s a lot luckier than this bald eagle, who was almost drowned by an octopus in Canada last month.
