Shocking video has captured the moment an oblivious UK tourist had a brush with death after inadvertently handling one of the most venomous creatures in the world.
Andrew McConnell, a journalist and glass historian from Antiques Roadshow in the UK shared the experience to social media saying: “My close encounter with death. Exploring the world alone, 11,000km from home, inevitably involves taking risks.”
He continued: “But nothing as extreme as my apparent brush with death yesterday, which was both inadvertent and to which I was entirely oblivious until I posted about it.”
Mr McConnell said he was out on his morning beach walk in the Philippines a few days ago when he spotted a group of animated children.
“They explained that they had caught a ‘baby octopus’ that they were passing it between themselves & releasing it into a rock pool.
“I filmed myself copying their actions before returning it to its finder, who then placed it into its temporary home, a sea urchin shell.
Mr McConnell posted the video to social media however said he remained oblivious to the danger of the situation until the clip went viral with many Aussies sharing their horror.
“Turns out that it was a blue-ringed octopus, instantly recognisable to Aussies & others as the world’s first / second / third most venomous animal,” he wrote.
Mr McConnell said most of the responses to the video had been polite, however others were “revolting and snotty”.
The experience was not Mr McConnell’s first brush with aquatic danger, last year he was speared by a catfish on the same beach. A similar video shows a Filipino man rubbing Catfish entrails into the wound following the spearing.
Aussies took to the comment section to express how lucky Mr McConnell was to escape with his life.
One person said “as soon as the OG clip came up in my feed my entire body just went cold with dread … I had an immediate visceral reaction. and I can’t believe you’re alive. Bro you are sooooo lucky”
Another added “@qldparks might like a chat. Why do tourists always find the worst wildlife to harass. You lucky man”
One commenter encouraged Mr McConnell not to forget to pat a Stone Fish while in the area, another highly venomous aquatic creature.
The blue-ringed octopus is one of the most venomous sea creatures in the world and can typically be found across the east coast of Australia and throughout Sydney Harbour.
It is usually docile and appears to be light-brown or dark yellow coloured, only developing the characteristic blue, glowing rings when threatened.
At four to six centimetres long, the sea creature’s small size means bites are often tiny and painless at first – but the venom is capable of causing respiratory arrest, heart failure, blindness, paralysis and eventually death from suffocation.
The octopus contains enough venom to kill 26 adults within minutes.
