Be afraid, be very afraid: octopus filmed hunting on land

Footage recorded in Western Australia and published online earlier this month shows an octopus darting out of a pool and seizing a crab from the water's edge before returning to its lair with its captive prize.

The remarkable footage was recorded by Porsche Indrisie near the town of Yallingup, a popular tourist destination, 266 km (165 miles) south of Perth.

"Was randomly filming this yellow crab and was shocked to capture an octopus leap out of the water and take it down," Ms Indrisie wrote on her YouTube channel.

“I didn’t know why I chose to film this crab, but thought I would try and get closer to it but something else beat me to it.”

Titled ‘Octopus gets crabby in Yallingup’, the video was uploaded to the video-sharing website on February 18th and attracted several million views within days.

While not the first time an octopus has been filmed walking on land, Ms Indrisie's video footage was dramatic enough to attract hundreds of comments from fellow YouTube users - not all of which were complimentary of her camera skills.

“To the majority of you who have had nice comments on my video thank you so much! I appreciate them and its insane for me to watch this spread so far and so quickly,” she wrote.

“To the armchair critics and negative comments - just so you know - when I started filming this I had no idea it would end up on YouTube let alone reaching across the world.”

“ It would have been better if I kept the camera steady yes, but balancing on sharp rocks and a quick reaction to turn around and yell out to my sister Chardae was what happened instead.

“I’m just grateful I captured what I did. Maybe you can hold the camera steady the next time an octopus jumps out of the water and attacks a crab!”