Hiding in a shell and throwing stones at fish: the directors of a new Netflix series have captured a unique sniper octopus

The directors of the new Netflix series Our Oceans have captured a unique octopus. This marine sniper hid in a shell and threw stones at fish.

The video shows a coconut octopus, also called a vein octopus, shooting tiny pebbles from its siphon, a tubular structure that these creatures use for swimming and steering, at a fish swimming nearby. According to the researchers, this is the first such footage of such an octopus attack, LiveScience reports.

"We couldn't believe it. He was shooting stones at the fish through the siphon. We were very surprised. No one had ever recorded a wiry octopus using its siphons as a weapon before," said Katie Moorehead, director of the Our Oceans series and assistant producer.

The cameramen shot the clip at a depth of 9 meters in the ocean in Southeast Asia. The filmmakers initially considered the impact of plastic pollution on the ocean by filming a lone octopus living on the seabed filled with garbage. But when they reviewed the footage, they realized that they had captured a completely different story.

"When confronted by a large fish, the octopus released a rock from its breathing siphon and hit it in the head," said Netflix executive producer James Honeybourne.

The rock was released so quickly that it could only be seen in slow motion footage.

"The fish around were clearly frightened and then swam away from the octopus. This shows that such an attack is an effective deterrent," added Jonathan Smith, the series' producer.

Director of photography Roger Manns spent 110 hours with the octopus over three weeks to understand how typical this behavior is for this mischievous animal. It turned out that the octopus often collects rocks and debris, loads it up, and then releases "projectiles" to scare away predators.

"It turns its siphon into a gun," former US President Barack Obama, who narrates the show, said in the show.

According to scientists, coconut octopuses are found throughout the Indian Ocean and emerge from their hiding places at dawn and dusk to find food. They are known for building armor from clams and coconut shells, pulling the halves together to create shields. Octopuses carry these shells with them from place to place, and then fold them up and crawl inside to hide.

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