If you ever get into an argument about who’d win in a fight, a shark or an octopus, and we all get into this argument eventually, here’s some useful video information about the only correct answer.
This video was shot by the University of Cape Town as part of their project to create a “baited remote underwater video system”. As you might guess, it can be difficult to get undersea wildlife to get in front of a camera, so, like most animals, you need to bribe them.
Still, this footage was completely unexpected and actually fairly fascinating. In it, the octopus shows off the intelligence we’ve become increasingly aware of over time. Once it detects food, it rockets over to the bait, where a shark is already trying to get at it, and swarms the Three arms tackle the zip ties holding the bait to a chain while a fourth arm grabs a shark by the tail and essentially treats it like a big guy putting the palm of his hand on a kid’s forehead and laughing as he flails at him.
Finally, he steals the whole canister and splits, one tentacle upraised and doing the octopus version of laughing.
Screw Shark Week, we want Octopus Week.