Octopus tries to eat camera that made him famous

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An octopus reacts to a GoPro camera put in its tank by turning it around before trying to eat it. Photo: Benjamin Savard/Middlebury College
An octopus reacts to a GoPro camera put in its tank by turning it around before trying to eat it. Photo: Benjamin Savard/Middlebury College

GoPro may have a new celebrity endorser, but he seems like a real sour pus.

An octopus in the neuroscience lab at Middlebury College apparently did not like having a GoPro placed in its tank. It turned the camera around on his photographer before trying to eat it.

Benjamin Savard, a digital media producer for the College, retrieved the camera and was surprised to discover the photos, which he posted to Reddit following Monday’s shoot.

Savard told the Washington Post he had set the camera to automatically record photos when he placed it in the tank.

“I was just trying to brainstorm different ideas of how to show off the kind of unique research that’s going on here and in ways that would be engaging,” Savard to the Post. “I think the octopus’s timing was great. I was just in the right place at the right time.”

The students were conducting research on whether an octopus can learn a task by watching another octopus, but after the GoPro event, the students may have another avenue for their studies.

Savard’s photos have been making the rounds on the internet. On Reddit alone, the photos have been viewed more than 3 million times.

The California two-spot octopus may be competition with other members of the animal kingdom. On GoPro’s official website, there are videos of a lion cub pawing a camera, a giraffe kicking one over and a grizzly bear exploring the tastiness of the device.

But considering the number of limbs on an octopus, the possibilities for GoPro are endless.

The octopus had good instincts when he turned the camera on the photographer. Photo: Benjamin Savard/Middleburgy College
The octopus had good instincts when he turned the camera on the photographer. Photo: Benjamin Savard/Middleburgy College

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