Recently at Smiths Beach in Yallingup, Western Australia, a lady named Porsche Indrisie indecently caught a video showing a small octopus bursting out of a tide pool to capture an unsuspecting crab.
Common shallow-water octopuses are all carnivores. They envelop the prey and bite, injecting a neurotoxin. As long as their gills are wet, they can stay out of water for a minute or two without damage. It’s the suckers that often get fouled up if they traverse dry and coarse materials. This type of ambush hunting in tide pools is a common behavior for octopuses. Some species of octopus make this their primary habitat, so they are adapted to staying in tide pools and making very short forays for seconds, out of the water.
