AN OCTOPUS has been caught engaging in eight-tentacled warfare, turning a body part into a “gun”.
In groundbreaking new footage, a coconut octopus is shown pelting encircling fish with stones, while it hides inside a clamshell.
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Octopi have been known to hide in shells, and even use them as armour.
Coconut octopi even get their name from their habit of lodging themselves inside empty coconut husks.
But, using its syphon – a tube normally used for swimming – to launch projectiles, has never been documented.
The footage was captured as part of a Netflix documentary on the impacts of plastic pollution on marine life in southeast Asia.
The never-before-seen behaviour was only discovered after the team reviewed the footage.
“We couldn’t believe it,” said Netflix series producer Katy Moorhead, the Greek Reporter wrote.
“She was shooting fish, with stones, through her syphon! We were so surprised.
“Nobody had ever recorded veined octopuses using their syphons as weapons before.”
To be sure it wasn’t a one-time event, the team returned to observe the octopus for another three weeks.
Cinematographer Roger Munns spent 110 hours filming the creature, watching it carefully load sandy debris into its syphon to fire at fish that swam too close.
The projectiles moved so quickly the filmmakers were barely able to catch it unless the footage was played in slow-motion.
“She turns her syphon into a gun,” said former President Barack Obama, the series’ narrator.
“Until now, we didn’t know an octopus could arm itself like this. Genius”.
Coconut octopi, also known as Amphioctopus marginatus, are typically found in tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean.