‘Lucky’ octopus scrambles for cover after being washed ashore in NC, video shows

Octopuses don’t often take a beach day, but a North Carolina woman recently captured video of a rare encounter with just such a cephalopod along the coast of Oak Island.

But what was it doing there?

Taylor Dillon said in her 27 years of visiting the coastal community, she’s never seen anything like it.

The octopus was small, she said, “about the size of a squirrel,” and would periodically change color in an attempt to camouflage itself.

“It appears he was just hanging out in a small tidal pool,” she said, speculating that it may have come ashore to escape a predator.

At one point, the octopus scrambles behind a rock, holding on tight with its tentacles as it peers over the top.

“This octopus is very exposed and is being washed around by the surf,” Brian Dorn, associate director of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, told McClatchy News. “The animal was lucky enough to have a rock nearby to give it a solid object to hold on to so it doesn’t get washed around as much.”

It was also seeking shelter, Dorn said. The animals are masters of disguise and stealth, and their skills sharpen further as they age, demonstrating more advanced strategies.

Still, this particular master of disguise was out of its element, and “a few seagulls had their eye on him, so we made sure he made it back into the ocean,” Dillon said.

It’s known that octopuses will sometimes make their way across rocks and sand “when they absolutely need to,” but it’s rare behavior and an uncommon sight, Dorn said.

Besides not being able to breathe, land leaves an octopus vulnerable to a host of new predators, such as birds, or opportunistic mammals like foxes and raccoons.

This octopus, which Dorn believes is a Common Octopus, probably came to the beach by accident, and may have been chasing prey near the shore when an incoming wave swept them onto the sand.

Faced with that situation, most octopuses would be able to make it to safety, Dorn said.

“Octopuses are very intelligent animals and I am certain it found its way into deeper water as soon as it was able to find a way back out into the ocean.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 2:19 PM with the headline "‘Lucky’ octopus scrambles for cover after being washed ashore in NC, video shows."