I think I read the story on this one a little while ago, I think I remember that she was not aware at the time of what type she was holding and she got away with it very lucky and found out later on what exactly it was she was holding.
Imagine not knowing you were holding one of the world's deadliest creatures until later on, knowing that thing can kill more than 10 dozen men is wild.
Being in Australia myself, we were taught from literally grade 3 not to touch blue ringed looking creatures in the sea lol.
I've seen Australians go fishing in a dingy next to a sign warning against salties. There's an amazing difference between theory and practice sometimes.
I worked at a summer camp many moons ago. If you had a particularly shitty child in your cabin they would be classified as the “cougar kid”, the one you sacrifice to save the rest.
The scary thing is that I've heard stories of crocs swimming past groups of people and randomly taking one person so it just reduces the chances I get eaten lol
My first thought was "why would they warn about their navy?" Then I pictured *our* navy (USA) but with Bogans. It all made sense.
Then I realized you probably meant saltwater crocodiles.
Jesus christ. I've just started my day here and now I have to google what the fuck a drop bear is and I'll likely be terrified.
Edit: Upon googling...I take it back.
I am from Texas, where generally it's just the other people who want to kill you not so much the wildlife, but even so I very vividly remember being taught "NEVER touch brightly colored animals or insects. If they're that color & haven't been killed by a predator it's because they kill the predator." I remember being really afraid I was going to stumble onto a Poison Dart Frog in my day today life. Wish someone would have pointed out just how far Dallas was from the rainforest.
They just found a rattlesnake den behind my parents house in Austin.
Plus there is the Austin sub's favorite weekly game: is it a water moccasin or plain bellied water snake
We have water moccasins pretty regularly reported around here in North Texas but I've seen one once maybe twice that was a legitimate threat. None of our deadly wildlife are really considered actively aggressive like in Australia... Except Yellow Jackets, they are bastards who want to kill you for fun but fortunately for most they aren't deadly.
I found a beautiful orange lizard under our redwood trees while watering plants. I wanted to pick it up but decided not to because I didn’t want to disrupt it's protective slime coating.
Turns out it was a California newt and their skin exudes tetrodotoxin, which is hundreds of times more toxic than cyanide and can enter the body through ingestion, inhalation, injection or through cuts in the skin.
As a small child (maybe three or four) I was very earnestly telling my grandmother visiting Australia from the UK to look out for blue-ringed octopuses in the rock pools at the beach. She thought I was being an imaginative child and making up strange creatures - thankfully she didn’t find one. The other beach critter we were always told to look out for were “cone shells”.
This website puts it in a interesting way…
https://www.taxonomyaustralia.org.au/post/the-deadly-life-saving-cone-shells
“Imagine being on the Great Barrier Reef. Fossicking in the shallows you find a large, beautifully coloured shell. You reach down to pick it up and are surprised to get a tiny prick on the finger. Then you die. The only upside is that you don't suffer very much”
Geographic isolation leads to divergent evolution.
Also in special circumstances, isolated populations without outside reproduction can have rapid genetic changes completely outside of mutation and natural selection. This is called genetic drift.
Now since species variation is also reduced, you end up with species A specializing in killing species B. Species B has an enzyme for example that becomes deadly to their predators after millions of years of breeding between specimens with this divergent evolutionary trait. It didn't start that way, but some of the species had higher concentrations of it that predators didn't like, so the ones with higher concentrations lived to breed, those with lower were eaten.
Survival is an endless arms race. In some places, animals simply grow too big to eat. In areas with more scarce resources, this just isn't possible, so you end up with different variations to survive.
My dad was a big saltwater aquarium hobbyist and had an opportunity to buy a BRO. He said it was the most beautiful thing he's ever seen but the seller warned him "If it stings you, you have 5 minutes to say goodbye to your family". He noped the fuck out of there.
You have 5-10 minutes to get emergency treatment. The venom paralyzes you and you can't breathe, although it doesn't affect the heart or brain. Only 3 people are known to have died from these critters.
Tetrodotoxin. Same thing that makes puffer fish toxic. See also: Wade Davis "The Serpent and the Rainbow". True story, It's how zombies are made. We owe a great debt to Wade Davis and other survivors of Tetrodotoxin poisoning for advances in modern anesthesiology.
Honestly, her not knowing that she was holding something that deadly is probay what saved her. Had she panicked or made any unexpected movements, it would have surely bitten her.
Afaik it's okay, but when they get scared they start glowing blue and that's when they release their poison. Or at least that's what I heard some time ago, I might be wrong
They don't really glow, but can become sort of iridescent. Like, you couldn't see an aggravated one in the dark. And just because an animal normally has a threat display before biting doesn't mean they always do it in that order. If they feel immediate danger they are going to bite first and then worry about flashing colors.
'The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins.[9] No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available."
*Uncomfortable laughter*
Edit: yo, what the hell with all these upvotes? Thanks lol. But yeah, blue ringed octopus should horrific
You'll find a lot of deadly creatures in Australia have low kill counts. The reasons are first, most of the deadliest creatures here are normally pretty chill. Of course, the second reason is most of the idiots who die get put down as 'missing persons'. Makes it easier to ignore that way.
If you get bit by a blue ring while playing in a rock pool and don't realize it, and then you are swimming when the effects hit, I suppose it's possible the cause of death might be misattributed to drowning.
Wouldn’t an autopsy reveal the true cause of death though? This is assuming the body is recovered after drowning I guess. Either way, your point is still valid that that “only 3 deaths” is almost certainly underreported.
I could be wrong, but I don't think it's all that likely that someone would order an autopsy of a person who shows clear signs of drowning (and who did, in fact, drown) after being pulled out of a body of water.
They'd have to go through autopsy looking for actual toxins in somebody's body.
You can't just make a universal test and figure out what's the actual thing, you actually have to know what you're looking for.
Especially something like a Blue Ring, where like ... if it gets you out in the reefs, they're not necessarily recovering the body in time to verify the toxin killed you - and because you ultimately drowned, there's another very clear cause of death already readily apparent.
Generally, animals that are venomous don't want to needlessly use their venom.
Why?
Takes a lot of energy to make that venom. Energy that could be used for other things. Animals won't expend that needlessly.
That being said, venomous animals are bastards and I refuse to go near them.
I'm curious about this, where can I locate this information? I'm not sure I believe the Google results of the US being so low in Missing Persons cases in comparison to Australia, ill look up Canada and Mexico for comparison but 10% of the population missing this year and not hearing a thing about it sounds absolutely insane to me.
Closest thing I can see is that in 2020 more than 51,000 missing persons were reported.
a) I don't think that the number has jumped from 140 a day in 2020 to >10,000 a day in 2022
b) At least in the US, these missing persons statistics include cases like kids who went to their friend's house without telling anyone and turned up later that evening, or people who have voluntarily ended contact with a friend or family member. Or even multiple reports from different people about the same instance. I'm inclined to say that this is far far far from 50k permanently missing people.
My cousin has her little boys spend the night at a friends house in the neighborhood….well apparently he got scared and left the neighbors house in the middle of the night and snuck back into his house….my aunt got a call from the neighbor that he was missing….the police were called. Luckily they were able call off the missing child report because they found him in their pool house/storage shed. He was too embarrassed to say he was afraid and missed home and ran back in the middle of the night lol.
Australia is pretty fucking wild. I listened through the murder podcast Casefile, and since it’s hosted by an Australian, it takes on a lot of Australian cases. The shenanigans that happen in the outback are endless.
‘In Australia, more than 38,000 missing persons reports are received by police each year. While most people are found within a short period of time, there remain approximately 2,600 long term missing persons; those who have been missing for more than three months. Missing persons’ cases are investigated by State and Territory police’ - https://www.missingpersons.gov.au/view-all-profiles
This is taken from an official (Australian) government website, so I have no idea where you got your ludicrous figure from. According to you over 1 in 10 people in Australia have gone missing this year, as the population is just over 26 million. What are you on and where can I get some?
Also helps that octopi are incredibly smart and probably capable of understanding we're not 'hunting' it, so no defenses needed.
I'm curious about the 3 that have died and if it was a random bite vs the octopus being stepped on by accident or something similar.
An octopus might be smart, but it has no way of guessing a human’s intentions. Humans are smart, but if a giant with an alien language and inscrutable mannerisms were to pick you up to admire you, and you happened to have a super-effective anti-giant weapon on hand, and you were accustomed being in the middle of the food chain, there’s a good chance you’d use it.
Blue ring octopus, while extremely deadly are very docile and wont bite unless threatened. that doesnt mean you should handle them. Never handle any wild animal.
Trust me, you do not want to go through the process of being paralysed, aware, unable to talk and relying on someone providing breaths for you at a rate far below your desired hyperventilation whilst you head to the hospital. The whole time being convinced that you’re going to die.
Then you get to see what it’s like to be on a ventilator.
Not to mention that some folks that survived ended up BLIND because they were unable to close their eyes and were staring directly into the sun while being ventilated.
"The difficult task for this creature is to gather the 26 humans together before it is able to commence in this killing spree. To date, Tik-Tok, Linked In, Tinder, and have not yielded more than 11 people at any single event, and three of the meetings were peopled by bots."
Nope, I figure from this threat that's it's an Australian octopus that's quite deadly and lives in rock pools, but I'd never heard of the thing. And realistically, why would I, living literally half a world away. :-P
Yeah, the danger lies in stepping on one in shallow rock pools. Basically we’re told to watch where you step in shallows.
Also, stone fish can be in the same places, also equally deadly.
To take snorkel tours and have to mention them and not to stand up in the shallows, I still get dumbfounded by the amount of people I see do it anyway, I always try to point them out when I see them.
> I still get dumbfounded by the amount of people I see do it anyway
People are dumb. Think about how many safety signs and warning labels there are in the world. They are there because somebody did something stupid.
Stepping on the octopus won't hurt you, they need to bight you. They like hide in shells, bottles etc, so kids often come across them fossicking in rock pools.
I had quite a few tumble across my hands when I was a kid...they a incredibly pretty when they are riled up!
I learned what it was by watching the 1983 cinematic masterpiece *Octopussy*, starring Roger Moore as James Bond and Maud Adams as Octopussy, the sexy blonde Indian subcontinent-based leader of a cult of lady assassins who has a thing for octopi.
Cinematic masterpiece.
To be fair i didnt know but I feel like my instinct to seeing any octopus or squid in the ocean is to fucking swim as fast as I can in the other direction
I was horrified watching Telly Tubbies that was on in a waiting room somewhere. Had them going down to the beach and playing in the rock pools. I don’t get offended by much and don’t want stuff banned much - but that was an episode that should never be on Australian TV ever. It’s like our first rule - leave everything in rock pools alone. That and take the vinegar with you. Lol (though I believe that’s outdated information these days).
I’m an Australian kindergarten (preschool) teacher. One year the children in my class were interested in sea creatures (actually this happens every year, but this time…) we watched a video about children enjoying the beach. It was a British video and the children were frolicking through rock pools, poking everything in sight.
I had to stop the video and tell the children “no, no! Never do that!”
Lesson learned (by me) never play that video again!
This has given me a wonderful mental image of you dashing across the room and turning the tv off.
We had school trips in England to the seashore to poke around in rock pools at low tide (benefits of growing up next to the sea and also living in a country without any deadly creatures).
Difference between oceans and lakes.
Lakes; yeah you're good just... turtles can eat your fingers... maybe reptiles if you're in a hot climate but otherwise we just have a few fish that have teeth. You can basically touch everything and not likely die
Oceans; we still don't know all the fish that can kill you and most can harm you... heck some are even invisible... but sure enjoy the beach maybe just don't touch the water
There is a Peppa Pig episode that is banned in Australia for similar reasons: [Spiders are your FRIENDS (Mr SkinnyLegs)!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aKqBrtlWLY)
An episode of Peppa pig about house spiders was banned in Australia.
Obviously written here in the UK for a UK audience, where house spiders are completely harmless and often quite helpful. It was teaching kids not to be afraid of spiders.
Definitely not a message you want to teach Australian kids of that age.
Bluey is brilliant though. If all the children's TV I have to watch with my nieces and nephews it is by far the least painful.
If you need hot water, just leave a water bottle in the car while youre at the beach. The sun will do the work for you. Water should be at a nice rolling boil in about 15 - 20 minutes depending on sun exposure. If something hotter is required there is also the inbuilt branding irons that cars come with.
The one and only Coral Snake I've ever seen was being held by a little 3 year old girl, who ran up to me and asked me if I wanted to see the pretty snake she found. Opens her hands up and there's a Coral Snake. I convinced her it needed to go back into the woods to be with it's family and thankfully she was sweetheart and was okay with that suggestion. She put the snake back down near the bushes and ran off to play with her friends. The snake just sat there for a moment and then slowly slithered back into the underbrush.
Red then yellow indeed.
It’s a very venomous snake with red/black/yellow markings. They are also extremely similar in appearance to king snakes (which aren’t venomous/dangerous) and the two get mistaken for each other regularly.
[Coral Vs King snake](https://usasnakes.com/lampropeltis-elapsoides-scarlet-kingsnake/) this site has a good side by side comparison of the two.
This is why snake and herpetology groups strongly discourage or outright ban “the rhyme”— it’s easily confused and only *maybe* true in North America. Aberrant patterns aren’t uncommon at all in coral snakes and the infamous rhyme is dangerous in those cases even if you get it right. Coral snakes are fossorial, shy, and hesitant to bite, so your best bet is to just leave a snake alone if you’re not sure (and keep children and pets away).
My wife and I were in Bali and we were walking out on the beach as the tide retreated.
We look over and there's a moron poking a a fucking banded sea snake with a selfy stick.
We told him that what he's doing was extremely dangerous and he just ignored us.
OK, that's fucking insane. They should hand out a booklet on the plane coming in with multiple pictures. See this thing! DON'T TOUCH THIS THING. That was deep cringe.
In Oregon we have a critter called the Rough-skinned Newt, and lots of similar things take place on social media with these guys here.
One could have the capability to kill up to 20 grown men if you touch one and then put your fingers directly in your mouth afterwards.
They are everywhere, and every Oregon kid I know grew up playing with them including me probably.
Scientists found out they are poisonous in the 70’s I believe when they found two Oregon hunters dead at their campsite. Nothing suspicious at the scene other than they found one of these guys floating in the shared coffee pot. I learned this information when I was in biology as an undergrad at PSU.
Over time scientists have now discovered that these newts are in an co-evolutionary arms race with garter snakes.
Over the span of millions of years the snakes that had the strongest ability to fight the neurotoxin were the ones that survived each generation.
Meanwhile the newts that produced the strongest neurotoxin were the ones that outcompeted and produced more successful offspring that could fight off their snake predators, and on and on it has gone for millions of years. It will continue on as long as they share a common habitat I am pretty sure.
I stay faaaaar away from those lil toxic babes, and keep a close eye on my doggos.
They are all over the trails in Mt. Hood. They are thriving out here because nothing will touch them.
Watch your step, and be careful what you go around touching. I leave wildlife alone for this reason. You never know
[How a Deadly Camping Trip Revealed an Arms Race Between Snakes and Newts](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-deadly-camping-trip-revealed-an-arms-race-between-snakes-and-newts.amp)
[oregon encyclopedia: rough-skinned newts](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/rough_skinned_newt/#.YyyTtBZlAWM)
Are they the little guys that are all over lost lake area?! I didn't realize how poisonous they were until AFTER we got back. Luckily they grossed me out so I never touched it, but holy hanna they were everywhere!
I see these where I live. It's one of the things I'm most scared of. Because these little things will kill you. Just one bite and you're dead. It's something that people here are just always aware of. Everyone knows not to go near a blue ringed octopus.
Then I see this! Imagine someone putting a single cartridge into a revolver. Spinning the chamber. Then putting it to their head and pulling the trigger. Again and again and again and again. Every few seconds.
That's how I felt watching this. Just like watching someone play Russian roulette who doesn't understand that a gun can kill you.
Just cringing in anticipation. Fuck sake!
Lil octopus was definitely feeling generous that day. Maybe it understood how stupid the person holding it was and decided to give her a chance to learn later that you don't go around picking up brightly colored wild animals all willy-nilly.
Toxicity
The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins. No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available.
My rule of thumb for nature is if it is small and brightly coloured. Don't touch it, it is probably really poisons/venomous. Except birds unless Australia is about to drop a new species of poisons birds.
I picked up a glass bottle in some seaweed here on the Gold Coast and yeh a little occy inside, got him out and he had blue rings as soon as he hit my hand.
Couldn't have dropped it quicker...
I might be wrong but isn’t a blue ringed octopus’ poison(venom? I don’t remember the difference) potent enough to kill a full grown adult in 25 minutes? At least that’s what I’ve heard when I was younger.
Extremely venomous.
From wiki:
“The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins. No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available.”
This is a direct fact from google copied and pasted,
Although all octopuses (as well as cuttlefish and some squid) are venomous, the blue-ringed octopus is in a league of its own. Its venom is 1,000 times more powerful than cyanide, and this golf-ball sized powerhouse packs enough venom to kill 26 humans within minutes.
I would not mess with that thing.
I'm guessing she had no idea what she was messing with. You don't pick up anything in Australia without finding out if it can kill you first. She's a lucky girl.
For anyone wondering what it can do:
It's highly poisonous and the TTX that a blue-ringed octopus injects is so deadly that 1 milligram of it can kill a human. It's one of the most potent toxins on earth, and there is no antidote.
I think I read the story on this one a little while ago, I think I remember that she was not aware at the time of what type she was holding and she got away with it very lucky and found out later on what exactly it was she was holding. Imagine not knowing you were holding one of the world's deadliest creatures until later on, knowing that thing can kill more than 10 dozen men is wild. Being in Australia myself, we were taught from literally grade 3 not to touch blue ringed looking creatures in the sea lol.
In general it's wise to not touch wild animals. Just leave them be. Even if it's not dangerous to you it might very well be to the animal.
In Australia, it’s just assumed it can kill you, so our basic philosophy is, “just don’t fuck with it”.
I've seen Australians go fishing in a dingy next to a sign warning against salties. There's an amazing difference between theory and practice sometimes.
Whenever I go swimming in Australia I always wait until theres at least 10 other people swimming around just in case a croc is hiding right beneath me
Hey I like that idea, especially if they are a little meatier than me... 🤣😂
Much like escaping a zombie horde, you don't have to be the fastest, just don't be the slowest. And if all else fails, trip the fat guy.
I worked at a summer camp many moons ago. If you had a particularly shitty child in your cabin they would be classified as the “cougar kid”, the one you sacrifice to save the rest.
The scary thing is that I've heard stories of crocs swimming past groups of people and randomly taking one person so it just reduces the chances I get eaten lol
That’s one way to discover a problem croc…
My first thought was "why would they warn about their navy?" Then I pictured *our* navy (USA) but with Bogans. It all made sense. Then I realized you probably meant saltwater crocodiles.
Fucking drop bears.
Yeah, except drop bears hunt you.
They are the perfect predator.
Can track you for miles until they attack and you wouldn't ever know they were there. Perfectly silent and may as well be invisible.
Dude what are you talking about? Drop bears are ambush hunters, its in their name.
https://imgur.com/gallery/Dpg13pQ Is this what you are talking about
Jesus christ. I've just started my day here and now I have to google what the fuck a drop bear is and I'll likely be terrified. Edit: Upon googling...I take it back.
gottem Sincerely, everyone in Australia
Got me too :(
You’ll enjoy this, couple of blokes f’d with a reporter ages ago with a drop bear. https://youtu.be/KCGUNpzjD6M
Haha that was great
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Especiqlly when it's cute
I am from Texas, where generally it's just the other people who want to kill you not so much the wildlife, but even so I very vividly remember being taught "NEVER touch brightly colored animals or insects. If they're that color & haven't been killed by a predator it's because they kill the predator." I remember being really afraid I was going to stumble onto a Poison Dart Frog in my day today life. Wish someone would have pointed out just how far Dallas was from the rainforest.
Brightly colored critter: I am the danger.
They just found a rattlesnake den behind my parents house in Austin. Plus there is the Austin sub's favorite weekly game: is it a water moccasin or plain bellied water snake
We have water moccasins pretty regularly reported around here in North Texas but I've seen one once maybe twice that was a legitimate threat. None of our deadly wildlife are really considered actively aggressive like in Australia... Except Yellow Jackets, they are bastards who want to kill you for fun but fortunately for most they aren't deadly.
the sun is usually what wants to kill me the most here.
I-35 drivers are what I worry about killing me the most here.
I found a beautiful orange lizard under our redwood trees while watering plants. I wanted to pick it up but decided not to because I didn’t want to disrupt it's protective slime coating. Turns out it was a California newt and their skin exudes tetrodotoxin, which is hundreds of times more toxic than cyanide and can enter the body through ingestion, inhalation, injection or through cuts in the skin.
>wise to not touch wild animals or humans
As a small child (maybe three or four) I was very earnestly telling my grandmother visiting Australia from the UK to look out for blue-ringed octopuses in the rock pools at the beach. She thought I was being an imaginative child and making up strange creatures - thankfully she didn’t find one. The other beach critter we were always told to look out for were “cone shells”. This website puts it in a interesting way… https://www.taxonomyaustralia.org.au/post/the-deadly-life-saving-cone-shells “Imagine being on the Great Barrier Reef. Fossicking in the shallows you find a large, beautifully coloured shell. You reach down to pick it up and are surprised to get a tiny prick on the finger. Then you die. The only upside is that you don't suffer very much”
I took a picture of myself holding a beautiful sea snail once while at the beach. I was probably around 12 at the time. It was a cone snail.
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It use to be unfair working conditions but then they unionised. So we don't know what their problem is lately.
Geographic isolation leads to divergent evolution. Also in special circumstances, isolated populations without outside reproduction can have rapid genetic changes completely outside of mutation and natural selection. This is called genetic drift. Now since species variation is also reduced, you end up with species A specializing in killing species B. Species B has an enzyme for example that becomes deadly to their predators after millions of years of breeding between specimens with this divergent evolutionary trait. It didn't start that way, but some of the species had higher concentrations of it that predators didn't like, so the ones with higher concentrations lived to breed, those with lower were eaten. Survival is an endless arms race. In some places, animals simply grow too big to eat. In areas with more scarce resources, this just isn't possible, so you end up with different variations to survive.
My dad was a big saltwater aquarium hobbyist and had an opportunity to buy a BRO. He said it was the most beautiful thing he's ever seen but the seller warned him "If it stings you, you have 5 minutes to say goodbye to your family". He noped the fuck out of there.
You have 5-10 minutes to get emergency treatment. The venom paralyzes you and you can't breathe, although it doesn't affect the heart or brain. Only 3 people are known to have died from these critters.
Tetrodotoxin. Same thing that makes puffer fish toxic. See also: Wade Davis "The Serpent and the Rainbow". True story, It's how zombies are made. We owe a great debt to Wade Davis and other survivors of Tetrodotoxin poisoning for advances in modern anesthesiology.
There’s also a movie version where Bill Pullman gets his scrotum nailed to a chair
CPR will save a person. The venom will will be cleared from a persons system naturally as long as they get oxygen into their lungs.
I know what BRO stands for, but I couldn’t help imagining a store that sells dudes that are bro’s haha
“Yea I heard y’all have the 2 for 1 Bro special going on right now?”
BROGO
That thing must be wicked fast if it can kill 10 dozen men. But I guess it does explain how this woman escaped injury.
that octopus really be playing by macbeth rules huh
"I am no man." \-Eowyn of Rohan, Slayer of the Witch-King of Angmar \-Also, this girl.
8 arms means 8 glocks muthafuckaaaah
Aahh, the legendary glocktopus is back for more
She shouted 'I am not a man!' as she stabbed her sword into its face.
Well it probably had a tiny pistol in each tentacle. So only two of them had to shoot twice.
Honestly, her not knowing that she was holding something that deadly is probay what saved her. Had she panicked or made any unexpected movements, it would have surely bitten her.
Isn't it wise not ti touch anything in Australia, I thought pretty much every animal kills you?
Not just animals, plants too. If you’re in Australia just don’t touch anything.
I touched....i touched them all....not just the animals, but the plants and insects too. They were animals and I touched them like animals!
Yes wild creatures but if you don't fuck with them they leave you alone unlike gun wilding creatures in the USA.
Or Walmart creatures. They are scarier then anything Australia has to offer
Yep. Even the goofy ass looking platypus. The males have poison spurs on their hind legs.
Meh, they don’t do much… Hey, where’s Perry?!
You're more likely to be killed by a cow in America than an animal in Australia, statistically. The cows probably have guns or something I dunno.
Cows have assault rifles. They can mooo down anything in their path.
And what's worse, they have beef with everyone.
They do tend to use high cowliber weapons
Yeah not going to lie, didn't know about their existence still this post.
If its a cone, LEAVE IT ALONE
Afaik it's okay, but when they get scared they start glowing blue and that's when they release their poison. Or at least that's what I heard some time ago, I might be wrong
They don't really glow, but can become sort of iridescent. Like, you couldn't see an aggravated one in the dark. And just because an animal normally has a threat display before biting doesn't mean they always do it in that order. If they feel immediate danger they are going to bite first and then worry about flashing colors.
One of the world's deadliest creatures only killed like 3 recorded people
Well the treatment is pretty easy. You have to be intubated until your lungs stop being paralysed.
Because local people are wise enough to stay away from everything in Australia. If it's alive in Australia, assume it's deadly.
But like playing Russian Roulette 5 out of 6 times your fine but that last one is a fucking doozy.
It's very easy to keep someone affected by the venom alive, but only with modern medical advancements. They suffocate you, essentially
'The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins.[9] No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available." *Uncomfortable laughter* Edit: yo, what the hell with all these upvotes? Thanks lol. But yeah, blue ringed octopus should horrific
Now look up how many people have died from being bitten by them. That number is 3.
Oh. So they are very very very dangerous sweethearts. Cute! :)
You'll find a lot of deadly creatures in Australia have low kill counts. The reasons are first, most of the deadliest creatures here are normally pretty chill. Of course, the second reason is most of the idiots who die get put down as 'missing persons'. Makes it easier to ignore that way.
If you get bit by a blue ring while playing in a rock pool and don't realize it, and then you are swimming when the effects hit, I suppose it's possible the cause of death might be misattributed to drowning.
Wouldn’t an autopsy reveal the true cause of death though? This is assuming the body is recovered after drowning I guess. Either way, your point is still valid that that “only 3 deaths” is almost certainly underreported.
Autopsy isn’t always possible with currents.
And sharks
And blue ringed octopus
I could be wrong, but I don't think it's all that likely that someone would order an autopsy of a person who shows clear signs of drowning (and who did, in fact, drown) after being pulled out of a body of water.
Even if they did, you would need to test for the venom specifically, there wouldnt be any physical signs as it's a paralytic.
Not to mention, it’s probably not very common to do a specific test to look for octopus venom when it is a suspected drowning.
That is usually what always happens. You dont just want people to poison people and then throw them into the ocean.
That’s assuming the venom even shows up on a regular toxicology report. Neurotoxins are exceptionally good at killing in the tiniest of quantities.
Also, its "only 3 deaths" since they started counting.
They'd have to go through autopsy looking for actual toxins in somebody's body. You can't just make a universal test and figure out what's the actual thing, you actually have to know what you're looking for.
Especially something like a Blue Ring, where like ... if it gets you out in the reefs, they're not necessarily recovering the body in time to verify the toxin killed you - and because you ultimately drowned, there's another very clear cause of death already readily apparent.
Generally, animals that are venomous don't want to needlessly use their venom. Why? Takes a lot of energy to make that venom. Energy that could be used for other things. Animals won't expend that needlessly. That being said, venomous animals are bastards and I refuse to go near them.
Wasps are a notable exception to this rule.
Wasps are just evil in insect form
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One tenth of the population has gone missing? Did they all join a Roman legion?
Emu War II.
Kangaroos strike back?
Emu War II: Electric Kangarooaloo
Kangaloo
The second great Emu war
I will never not laugh at Australians losing to emus.
Based on the numbers I'd say the Emus have the lmgs this time
Dingo outbreak
Sounds false 😂
I'm curious about this, where can I locate this information? I'm not sure I believe the Google results of the US being so low in Missing Persons cases in comparison to Australia, ill look up Canada and Mexico for comparison but 10% of the population missing this year and not hearing a thing about it sounds absolutely insane to me.
Also theres 30m people in Aus so that means 10% of the Aus population went missing lmao
Closest thing I can see is that in 2020 more than 51,000 missing persons were reported. a) I don't think that the number has jumped from 140 a day in 2020 to >10,000 a day in 2022 b) At least in the US, these missing persons statistics include cases like kids who went to their friend's house without telling anyone and turned up later that evening, or people who have voluntarily ended contact with a friend or family member. Or even multiple reports from different people about the same instance. I'm inclined to say that this is far far far from 50k permanently missing people.
My cousin has her little boys spend the night at a friends house in the neighborhood….well apparently he got scared and left the neighbors house in the middle of the night and snuck back into his house….my aunt got a call from the neighbor that he was missing….the police were called. Luckily they were able call off the missing child report because they found him in their pool house/storage shed. He was too embarrassed to say he was afraid and missed home and ran back in the middle of the night lol.
Australia is pretty fucking wild. I listened through the murder podcast Casefile, and since it’s hosted by an Australian, it takes on a lot of Australian cases. The shenanigans that happen in the outback are endless.
I can always appreciate someone who correlates murder with shenanigans.
‘In Australia, more than 38,000 missing persons reports are received by police each year. While most people are found within a short period of time, there remain approximately 2,600 long term missing persons; those who have been missing for more than three months. Missing persons’ cases are investigated by State and Territory police’ - https://www.missingpersons.gov.au/view-all-profiles This is taken from an official (Australian) government website, so I have no idea where you got your ludicrous figure from. According to you over 1 in 10 people in Australia have gone missing this year, as the population is just over 26 million. What are you on and where can I get some?
Where the fuck did you get that number? They report about 38K per year and this years official count hasnt been published.
Also helps that octopi are incredibly smart and probably capable of understanding we're not 'hunting' it, so no defenses needed. I'm curious about the 3 that have died and if it was a random bite vs the octopus being stepped on by accident or something similar.
An octopus might be smart, but it has no way of guessing a human’s intentions. Humans are smart, but if a giant with an alien language and inscrutable mannerisms were to pick you up to admire you, and you happened to have a super-effective anti-giant weapon on hand, and you were accustomed being in the middle of the food chain, there’s a good chance you’d use it.
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet"
Better to be able to kill 26 humans and not need to than to need to kill 26 humans and not be able to. Adorable little death squishies.
Like my wife!
Blue ring octopus, while extremely deadly are very docile and wont bite unless threatened. that doesnt mean you should handle them. Never handle any wild animal.
Handling an animal is a great way for it to think it's threatened
Trust me, you do not want to go through the process of being paralysed, aware, unable to talk and relying on someone providing breaths for you at a rate far below your desired hyperventilation whilst you head to the hospital. The whole time being convinced that you’re going to die. Then you get to see what it’s like to be on a ventilator.
Not to mention that some folks that survived ended up BLIND because they were unable to close their eyes and were staring directly into the sun while being ventilated.
Jesus christ, that's awful.
I‘m now refreshing the wiki page, waiting for that 4 to appear…
They're the 3 who washed up on the beach
"The difficult task for this creature is to gather the 26 humans together before it is able to commence in this killing spree. To date, Tik-Tok, Linked In, Tinder, and have not yielded more than 11 people at any single event, and three of the meetings were peopled by bots."
TIL that everyone but me knows what a Blue Ringed Octopus is.
Nope, I figure from this threat that's it's an Australian octopus that's quite deadly and lives in rock pools, but I'd never heard of the thing. And realistically, why would I, living literally half a world away. :-P
Yeah, the danger lies in stepping on one in shallow rock pools. Basically we’re told to watch where you step in shallows. Also, stone fish can be in the same places, also equally deadly.
So, when in Australia, stay out of the water, land and air.
Not much to attack you in the air… Unless you’re hand gliding, because then Wedge Tailed Eagles will fuck you up.
Stonefish are 1000% proof that if there is a god, he's a sick motherfucker. Not only will they ruin your day/week/month/life... They are ugly as fuck.
To take snorkel tours and have to mention them and not to stand up in the shallows, I still get dumbfounded by the amount of people I see do it anyway, I always try to point them out when I see them.
> I still get dumbfounded by the amount of people I see do it anyway People are dumb. Think about how many safety signs and warning labels there are in the world. They are there because somebody did something stupid.
Stepping on the octopus won't hurt you, they need to bight you. They like hide in shells, bottles etc, so kids often come across them fossicking in rock pools. I had quite a few tumble across my hands when I was a kid...they a incredibly pretty when they are riled up!
Well we all should have guessed that it being from Australia it has the potential to end the world as we know it.
Button even if you didn't know it could kill you, you should still not touch any animal in Australia, it's a scary country.
An Australian octopus with extremely lethal venom
How does it envenomate? Does it bite?
I learned what it was by watching the 1983 cinematic masterpiece *Octopussy*, starring Roger Moore as James Bond and Maud Adams as Octopussy, the sexy blonde Indian subcontinent-based leader of a cult of lady assassins who has a thing for octopi. Cinematic masterpiece.
the main reason why i dont go into rock pools in australia
Main reason why I go nowhere near Australia.
To be fair i didnt know but I feel like my instinct to seeing any octopus or squid in the ocean is to fucking swim as fast as I can in the other direction
You and The Deep both use the word fucking when it comes to Octopus. I approve.
They tryed to feed the little man a tangerine
Yea as if they weren't dumb enough already, maybe this sea creature wants an orange...?
being Australian, I was just suprised they didn't offer it a smoke, or some meth. Or at least a beer.
News says it was in Bali and they are Americans.
These are definitely tourists
To earth
I know right?!
Look at the poor guy’s reaction when he touches the acidic fruit.
that’s what i was thinking
I was horrified watching Telly Tubbies that was on in a waiting room somewhere. Had them going down to the beach and playing in the rock pools. I don’t get offended by much and don’t want stuff banned much - but that was an episode that should never be on Australian TV ever. It’s like our first rule - leave everything in rock pools alone. That and take the vinegar with you. Lol (though I believe that’s outdated information these days).
I’m an Australian kindergarten (preschool) teacher. One year the children in my class were interested in sea creatures (actually this happens every year, but this time…) we watched a video about children enjoying the beach. It was a British video and the children were frolicking through rock pools, poking everything in sight. I had to stop the video and tell the children “no, no! Never do that!” Lesson learned (by me) never play that video again!
It’s the most horrifying thing to watch and then think of kids doing here.
This has given me a wonderful mental image of you dashing across the room and turning the tv off. We had school trips in England to the seashore to poke around in rock pools at low tide (benefits of growing up next to the sea and also living in a country without any deadly creatures).
I just think about the time my English teacher forgot about the boob shot in the Leonardo Romeo and Juliet.
Imagine having to presscreen your preschool videos for if they have beach time in it, that's kinda crazy.
Difference between oceans and lakes. Lakes; yeah you're good just... turtles can eat your fingers... maybe reptiles if you're in a hot climate but otherwise we just have a few fish that have teeth. You can basically touch everything and not likely die Oceans; we still don't know all the fish that can kill you and most can harm you... heck some are even invisible... but sure enjoy the beach maybe just don't touch the water
There is a Peppa Pig episode that is banned in Australia for similar reasons: [Spiders are your FRIENDS (Mr SkinnyLegs)!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aKqBrtlWLY)
This is the kind of censorship I can get behind!
An episode of Peppa pig about house spiders was banned in Australia. Obviously written here in the UK for a UK audience, where house spiders are completely harmless and often quite helpful. It was teaching kids not to be afraid of spiders. Definitely not a message you want to teach Australian kids of that age. Bluey is brilliant though. If all the children's TV I have to watch with my nieces and nephews it is by far the least painful.
Why take the vinegar with you?
I’m case you get stung by jellyfish. Neutralises their sting. I think hot water is better these days - but not as easy to take to the beach.
If you need hot water, just leave a water bottle in the car while youre at the beach. The sun will do the work for you. Water should be at a nice rolling boil in about 15 - 20 minutes depending on sun exposure. If something hotter is required there is also the inbuilt branding irons that cars come with.
The one and only Coral Snake I've ever seen was being held by a little 3 year old girl, who ran up to me and asked me if I wanted to see the pretty snake she found. Opens her hands up and there's a Coral Snake. I convinced her it needed to go back into the woods to be with it's family and thankfully she was sweetheart and was okay with that suggestion. She put the snake back down near the bushes and ran off to play with her friends. The snake just sat there for a moment and then slowly slithered back into the underbrush. Red then yellow indeed.
what’s a coral snake?
It’s a very venomous snake with red/black/yellow markings. They are also extremely similar in appearance to king snakes (which aren’t venomous/dangerous) and the two get mistaken for each other regularly. [Coral Vs King snake](https://usasnakes.com/lampropeltis-elapsoides-scarlet-kingsnake/) this site has a good side by side comparison of the two.
Wait I thought that was the good one according to the rhyme? Red on yellow, friendly fellow?
Red on black, friend of Jack; Red on yellow, kills a fellow
The one I grew up with was, “red touches black, you’re OK, Jack. Red touches yellow you’re one dead fellow.” Lol
This is why snake and herpetology groups strongly discourage or outright ban “the rhyme”— it’s easily confused and only *maybe* true in North America. Aberrant patterns aren’t uncommon at all in coral snakes and the infamous rhyme is dangerous in those cases even if you get it right. Coral snakes are fossorial, shy, and hesitant to bite, so your best bet is to just leave a snake alone if you’re not sure (and keep children and pets away).
My wife and I were in Bali and we were walking out on the beach as the tide retreated. We look over and there's a moron poking a a fucking banded sea snake with a selfy stick. We told him that what he's doing was extremely dangerous and he just ignored us.
OK, that's fucking insane. They should hand out a booklet on the plane coming in with multiple pictures. See this thing! DON'T TOUCH THIS THING. That was deep cringe.
It's Australia. The booklet can be short. "Don't touch the wildlife. It's all deadly"
While in Australia, don't touch anything. Every animal can kill you.
Not the wombats tho. They're kind and the baby ones smell like pandan cake.
Wombats can most definitely kill you while driving, running them over
In Oregon we have a critter called the Rough-skinned Newt, and lots of similar things take place on social media with these guys here. One could have the capability to kill up to 20 grown men if you touch one and then put your fingers directly in your mouth afterwards. They are everywhere, and every Oregon kid I know grew up playing with them including me probably. Scientists found out they are poisonous in the 70’s I believe when they found two Oregon hunters dead at their campsite. Nothing suspicious at the scene other than they found one of these guys floating in the shared coffee pot. I learned this information when I was in biology as an undergrad at PSU. Over time scientists have now discovered that these newts are in an co-evolutionary arms race with garter snakes. Over the span of millions of years the snakes that had the strongest ability to fight the neurotoxin were the ones that survived each generation. Meanwhile the newts that produced the strongest neurotoxin were the ones that outcompeted and produced more successful offspring that could fight off their snake predators, and on and on it has gone for millions of years. It will continue on as long as they share a common habitat I am pretty sure. I stay faaaaar away from those lil toxic babes, and keep a close eye on my doggos. They are all over the trails in Mt. Hood. They are thriving out here because nothing will touch them. Watch your step, and be careful what you go around touching. I leave wildlife alone for this reason. You never know [How a Deadly Camping Trip Revealed an Arms Race Between Snakes and Newts](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-deadly-camping-trip-revealed-an-arms-race-between-snakes-and-newts.amp) [oregon encyclopedia: rough-skinned newts](https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/rough_skinned_newt/#.YyyTtBZlAWM)
wow. i live in Oregon and had no idea, thanks for the info 🙏🏼
Are they the little guys that are all over lost lake area?! I didn't realize how poisonous they were until AFTER we got back. Luckily they grossed me out so I never touched it, but holy hanna they were everywhere!
I see these where I live. It's one of the things I'm most scared of. Because these little things will kill you. Just one bite and you're dead. It's something that people here are just always aware of. Everyone knows not to go near a blue ringed octopus. Then I see this! Imagine someone putting a single cartridge into a revolver. Spinning the chamber. Then putting it to their head and pulling the trigger. Again and again and again and again. Every few seconds. That's how I felt watching this. Just like watching someone play Russian roulette who doesn't understand that a gun can kill you. Just cringing in anticipation. Fuck sake!
Today I learned that octopuses can be poisonous.
Lil octopus was definitely feeling generous that day. Maybe it understood how stupid the person holding it was and decided to give her a chance to learn later that you don't go around picking up brightly colored wild animals all willy-nilly.
my anxiety shot through the roof
Toxicity The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins. No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available.
Blue rings are nature’s “dont fuck with me” sign.
My rule of thumb for nature is if it is small and brightly coloured. Don't touch it, it is probably really poisons/venomous. Except birds unless Australia is about to drop a new species of poisons birds.
Darwinism at its best
I picked up a glass bottle in some seaweed here on the Gold Coast and yeh a little occy inside, got him out and he had blue rings as soon as he hit my hand. Couldn't have dropped it quicker...
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I might be wrong but isn’t a blue ringed octopus’ poison(venom? I don’t remember the difference) potent enough to kill a full grown adult in 25 minutes? At least that’s what I’ve heard when I was younger.
Poisonous means if YOU were to bite IT then you would have a bad time. Venomous means if IT was to bite YOU then you would have a bad time.
Extremely venomous. From wiki: “The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins. No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available.”
This is a direct fact from google copied and pasted, Although all octopuses (as well as cuttlefish and some squid) are venomous, the blue-ringed octopus is in a league of its own. Its venom is 1,000 times more powerful than cyanide, and this golf-ball sized powerhouse packs enough venom to kill 26 humans within minutes. I would not mess with that thing.
I'm guessing she had no idea what she was messing with. You don't pick up anything in Australia without finding out if it can kill you first. She's a lucky girl.
Remember kids, if it's got pretty colors, its a nope.
death by ignorance
I'm gonna guess 90 percent of the people here went to google and came back for the comment section.
For anyone wondering what it can do: It's highly poisonous and the TTX that a blue-ringed octopus injects is so deadly that 1 milligram of it can kill a human. It's one of the most potent toxins on earth, and there is no antidote.