• Jay@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      “The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins.[11] No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available.[12]”

      Ok. Then I’d rather have a dog.

      • Lord_McAlister@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Some more hopeful information about this little bugger:

        It’s not ACTUALLY venomous. As in it doesn’t inject you with a lethal substance, rather, it injects you with a nerve-toxin which disables your ability to open/close your lungs, which kills you. This sounds just as bad, but it means if you can get to a hospital, and make it to a ventilator, you’ll be back to normal by the next day.

        • Cypher@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Venom doesn’t need to be lethal to be venom.

          Venom is a toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action.

          Blue Ringed octopuses are venomous.

        • takeda@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The scary part is that it looks like you won’t even feel that you have been bitten, and will know that when you start having problems breathing, and when that happens every second counts.

          Looking at the colors, it looks like it was in fight mode. The person holding it could already be dead.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
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      10 months ago

      They can be identified by their yellowish skin and characteristic blue and black rings that change color dramatically when the animal is threatened.

      Anything that becomes more visible when you threaten it… you’re not the threat.

    • MartinXYZ@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      A video, originally posted on TikTok, of a tourist in Australia handling a blue-ringed octopus went viral in January 2019.

      Is that where this picture is from? Or did a second person think it was a good idea?