Octopus vs. Shark

....and you thought sharks were the predators of the sea.

Octopus vs. Shark

Cool Video!

Not loving the comments below the video though! Why do people put such comments?

Interesting and cleverly edited video certainly, but the whole thing looked very staged to me. I'd almost go as far to say that the small shark had been drugged or otherwise placed in front of the octopod. The videographer took several pans of the shark before any interaction with the octopus took place as he seemed to know exactly wat was going to happen.

Having had feedback from crew on 'wildlife' shoots that routinely put reptiles in fridges and anesthetize insects to make them more controllable I am no longer surprised at the lengths people go to get a good take. Apologies to the author if I misjudged this one.

This is from "The Octopus Show" which is a Nature special. I don't know specifically how this was filmed, but this is in the Dome tank at the Seattle Aquarium and the continuing appetite of the octopus for Dogfish in the tank is the reason they are no longer kept there. By and large the commentary is fairly accurate if overly melodromatic.

Given that the author states that this happened in the Seattle Aquarium and gives the backdrop of why they were filming, I doubt the shark was drugged. They probably deduced what was happening after placing the octopus in the shark tank and then finding shark carcasses at the bottom of the tank.

Actually if I remember correctly, the Seattle Aquarium monitored the tank after finding shark carcasses. They began to monitor the octopus and found the real killer.

Sharks freeze if grabbed and enough tactile sensation overloads their senses, creating a catatonic state. No drugs involved.

Thanks for the background. 'No to drugs' so that's cool. But 'placed in front' was not such a long shot if the shark was confined to the same tank with the culprit! The author pretty much knew what was about to happen if the tank was full of cartilage skeletons lined around the octopus lair! Poor sharksie

Tried to post this earlier but somehow it ended up as a PM...

It's an ~400000 gallon tank (ie, people in the center, water on both sides and above). My understanding is that this became a problem when they added a lot of the extra rockwork so it was hard to find all the octopus to feed them well (and more octopus were needed to be visible ever). The octos tended to hide under the windows and grab the shark, leaving a nice little skeleton sitting right below the windows.

Anyone seen this?