'Naughty octopus' teaches dolphin a painful lesson

Researcher Joan Gonzalvo has photographed a leaping bottlenose dolphin with a large octopus clinging to its belly.

More precisely, the octopus was clinging to the dolphin's genital slit, and the dolphin was jumping, presumably, to shake free of this painful intrusion.

"My hypothesis is that the dolphin might have attacked - tried to prey on the octopus - and somehow to avoid it the octopus just attached to the dolphin's belly," Gonzalvo, who  runs the Ionian Dolphin Project, told New Scientist.

Gonzalvo's "naughty octopus" images, captured off the island of Kalamos in the Ionian Sea off Greece, are sure to go viral.

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Comments

[Reefannie]

Wow, this story is fascinating! I hope when the octopus was finally shaken off that it managed to hide quickly before it became lunch!

[Dredja]

Maybe the dolphin understands that some octopussies are just into adrenalin sports.