- It's hard to remember the last time I was this nervous
in the presence of an animal.
If you get bit, it's almost certain death.
Oh, I'm like, shaking right now.
Like, my feet are tingling.
(siren blaring)
Right now, I am out tide pooling in eastern Australia
in search of the deadliest creature on the planet.
The blue-ringed octopus has one
of the most toxic venoms on earth
and if we're lucky enough to find one,
I'm going to attempt to touch it with my bare hands.
But first things first, let's get looking.
From experience tide pooling,
the best results are usually from the edge.
The further out you can go, the better.
(adventurous music)
An octopus can change the texture of its skin
and it would just look like any of these.
Now I've stuck out on all three previous occasions trying
to locate a blue-ringed octopus.
I'm hoping the fourth time's the charm.
The difference this time is I'm searching
with my good friend, Miller Wilson
who has seen blue-rings in these tide pools before.
It's very hard to pick a octopus that's a master
of camouflage out from this environment.
It's about to be low tide, and this is probably one
of the most dangerous tide pools that I have ever searched.
So, wearing some nice, protective shoes, gloves.
I don't really want to handle the octopus
but the gloves should protect me just in case.
And of course, we still need to watch our steps
because if you look at this, all these rocks out here,
exactly like a stone fish.
And this is stone fish territory.
The stone fish is the world's most venomous fish.
If you step on one, your boots will not protect you.
A single sting from a stone fish could be excruciating
and could even be deadly.
(water dripping)
No octopus.
Flipping is not really doing it, so I'm just gonna cruise
to cover a lot of ground looking for movement.
A lotta times I do see octopus moving
from pocket to pocket.
But they slink along the surface.
I'm just looking for any movement right now, any movement.
We're getting it though, I can feel it.
(adventurous music fades)
(tense music rises)
Oh my god, I got an octopus.
I got a blue-ring, guys.
(soft tense music)
It's right here.
(soft tense music rising)
There it is.
I missed it.
(soft tense music rising)
It's right in here.
It's right here.
How could I miss that?
That was it.
(tense music rising)
Got it!
Oh, my gosh.
We got one. (victorious music)
Are you kidding me?
Yes!
Boom, baby.
Yes.
Holy cow.
Miller!
We're good.
We got one.
Can you help me get it out of the net?
So you'll see I'm wearing gloves, guys, for a reason
right now, this is a really good way to get a nip
and that is not what I want.
(tense music)
- Okay, there we go.
- Hey, buddy.
Let's talk about what we've found.
Right there in my hand is the most dangerous animal
on the planet, at least when it comes to venom.
Nothing in the animal kingdom is more toxic
than this tiny, little octopus.
And yes, I am nervous about it.
But before the end of this video,
I will officially touch with my bare hand
the most dangerous and toxic creature on earth.
There're actually four described varieties
of blue-ring octopus.
This one is the blue-lined octopus.
It's the only one in the family that has these really cool
vivid blue pinstripes surrounding the body.
It's almost like blue tiger stripes.
So if this animal is at all threatened,
here, I want to show you what it does.
You see that?
Look at those rings go.
(tense music)
Is that cool or what?
Oh, oh, ooh, okay.
Stay down, stay down.
If the octopus is at all agitated,
not only does it flare up the rings on its arms
but those lines on its body glow.
Back up, I'm toxic.
That's your aposematic warning.
And if you don't listen to me, I'm gonna give you a nip.
And they show these vivid display warnings
not only for predators, but they also do it
while they're hunting.
They will do it to confuse or startle their would-be prey.
This is what our octopus friend here is out hunting.
This is a type of shore crab.
Like, this would be the perfect food for the octopus.
All right, we're gonna let this crab go.
A single bite from this octopus
could kill over 20 human beings.
And needless to say, if I get nipped by this creature
that'll be the last nip I ever take.
Now these octopus are nocturnal
and they are masters of camouflage.
Its normal color pattern perfectly blends in
to this silty environment.
They have three hearts that pump blue blood.
They also have nine brains, one central brain
to run the entire nervous system,
but then at the base of each arm, they have another brain.
And you could see there,
that little beak holds two venom sacs.
And it's actually a toxin
that it doesn't even produce itself.
It actually picks up through bacteria
that it finds in the environment
through other organisms in this tide pool.
And then it collects this bacteria in its saliva glands
and when it uses its beak to bite into its prey
or a predator, for escape,
it will actually inject saliva into the wound.
Once this saliva enters the bloodstream
you get infected with TTX.
No animal has as lethal of a dose
as the blue-ring octopus does.
If you get even a micro amount of TTX
in your bloodstream, all you can do is be put
on life support and hope that eventually your body works
through the toxin on its own.
And here's the worst part about it, while you might be
in complete paralysis, you are lucid.
There are survivors that have lived to tell the tale
of having people try to resuscitate them giving active CPR.
And they weren't able to communicate
but they remember everything.
And a lot of people get bitten by these octopus
because of mistaken identity.
You'll come out to a local beach, and tide pool,
guys, turn your cameras right now.
This is an active beach.
People take their dogs and kids, and play on this beach
and these animals live all along the coastline.
Now that's not to scare you.
Obviously, we're out here actively looking for them.
They're hard to find, but people do unfortunately come
into contact with these octopus.
And they'll pick them up, play with them
and in that process take a bite
which is completely painless, by the way.
Initial symptoms are going to be things like tingling,
difficulty breathing, difficulty thinking,
loss of your motor skills, wobbly walking.
If you think you are ever bitten by a blue-ring octopus
and you start to have symptoms,
you have to be rushed to the hospital, fast as you can.
We're talking like, life flight situation
because you only have a matter of minutes
before your whole nervous system starts to shut down
and you're no longer able to breathe.
Whew.
In saying all that, while holding the octopus
in your hand, it's hard to remember the last time
I was this nervous in the presence of an animal.
All right, the time has come.
(Mark blows out)
For something that I've thought a lot about.
Because I know the only way that this octopus has
the ability to envenomate you is a bite with its beak
I am going to attempt to touch with my bare hand
the most lethal, toxic animal on the planet.
In order to do that, I'm gonna just dump out this water.
(water splashing) Look at that.
The octopus has tried to mimic the color of the cube.
Rest assured, this is just a camouflage tactic.
They are masters of this.
That octopus is still very much able to pounce and bite.
They can spend extended periods out of water.
All right, just so you guys know,
(tense music rising)
if this blue-ring does snare me,
we're going to the hospital.
On three.
One, two, three.
(heartbeat SFX)
(audio fast rewinds)
Oh. (heartbeat SFX)
That made me nervous.
All right, lid back on. I don't think I was just bitten now
but I'm not completely sure.
I have to take a break, guys
'cause like, I'm definitely feeling a little light-headed.
Like, major anxiety.
That animal right there, if you get bit,
it's game over, it's lights out.
Guys, I am like, shaking right now.
Like, my feet are tingling.
Things that you normally wouldn't pick up on
like, heart rate, how I'm breathing, tingle feel.
Like, I'm just from like, all the adrenaline pumping
through my body, and the emotions are intense.
Super intense.
(Mark blows out) Gotta shake that off.
The anxiety that I'm experiencing on camera is real
as I had almost identical symptoms
to that of a blue-ring bite.
While I was 99% sure I wasn't bitten, we had
to closely monitor my symptoms
until we deemed it safe enough to continue filming.
The symptoms of these bites could be subtle
and can be hard to differentiate from anxiety and panic
from other sources of stress.
Please, never attempt to do
what you are seeing in this video.
I cannot stress enough, if you are bitten
by a blue-ring octopus,
you must seek medical attention immediately.
I think I'm all right.
I think I'm okay to continue, let's keep going.
Okay, it's been a while since I've had this kind
of reaction to being in an encounter with an animal.
Like, it's like my first time seeing a venomous snake.
It's like all kinds of emotions right now.
Just brushing up against one in the tide pool
while you're walking around, if you accidentally touch one
you're gonna be just fine, it's like every other octopus.
The difference only occurs when you take a bite
from the beak right there.
Let's let the octopus go.
I'm Mark Vins, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
I want to give a huge shout out to my friend Miller Wilson
for helping us finally locate a blue-ring octopus.
If you haven't already, go check out his wildlife encounters
on the Miller Wilson YouTube channel.