Octopus vs. Sea Lion

Sadly, neither is "giant" or "mega", but it's still pretty interesting.

Previously:

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Anonymous

The National Geographic channel on youtube has it up now, or at least a similar video.
RHK

This explains why the giant octopus always attacks the GG Bridge – they’re trying to get at those damned sea lions at Pier 39.
planettom

Sung to the tune of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC THEME:

“Look at that sea lion/
kicking that octopus’s ass!
(BOOM BOOM)”
JayConverse

How about Cat v. Octopus? That would be epic.

LOL, I mean Puss v. Octopus…
scottso

Here it is!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100409-crittercam-sealion-vs-octopus-video/
jaytkay

If you can mount a camera on a sea lion, a laser would be a cinch.

Your move, National Geographic.
arkizzle / Moderator

Nice video! I love the CritterCam program, the various whale-videos are great too. But:

“..a challenging prey item.”

Ugh. This kind of language make science (or video-journalism) less fun. It is unnecessary complication and sounds so sterile. Natural English always wins in my book, Ã la Attenborough etc.
bbbaldie

I can relate. I **LOVE** tako salad!
Anonymous

That’s not the Natty Geo I knew as a kid — free magazines for life.
Too bad they are claiming copyright infringement on their stuff nowadays.
Anonymous

Australia has a Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts?

Is their other government department the Department of Justice, Health, Transport, Education, Defence and Business?
Jazzhigh

Turns out we have nothing to fear from Cthulhu. The sea lions turned over the rock he was sleeping under, dragged him to the surface and methodically ate him.
isaacb2

I’m not sure who to root for in that sequence… I like seals, but I feel bad for the octopus… is that weird? Sometimes it makes me a bit sad to see nature in all her majesty.
sigismund

wow !!! gonzo pred !!! ;D
TheRealSiliconDoc

What disturbed me was the audio claim that the critter cams would help determine what area is going to be designated some specially protected environment that the government owns under threat of imprisonment, and will no doubt employ dozens more enforcement agents to administer, forever.
If they screw it up again, they’ll have too many sea lions, and suddenly the octopus will be gone. Expect at least something that bad.
Also, the astounding mention that they found out the sea lions weren’t eating “the fish” swimming around.
I had to ask myself, had they never seen one with their whiskery puss full ? Obviously they had with the surface feeding. So of the dozens of guts they cut open from the dead beached sea lions, they hadn’t found the undigested fish in question (those they said weren’t being eaten), yet needed the critter cams to show they didn’t eat them ? That was a discovery ?
I wonder how many hundreds of observations and stomache contents were gone over without those fish present, yet still the “science” hoped they ate the fish mentioned, so at least, they could make all those protected species, too, or at least the ones they favored to be such…
That left – “the endangered octopus” as their near sole prey. No other ocean floor prey mentioned.
I don’t suppose in this case, they found out what they had hoped and imagined to and prayed to be true…
Awww….. the truth hurts.
jjasper

That’s some fresh Tako. Needs wasabi, though.
jonathon212

I want to see Cat vs. iPad but with less cat and more octopus!
Teller

When they’re not honking horns and eating fish from a bucket, they have kind of a dark side.
Anonymous

I’m weak. I hate to see animals killing each other. I know it’s necessary, but I find it painful. Well, that’s civilization, sending us further and further from what nature seems to really be about.
SKR

I was really hoping the predation was going to be the other way around.
- Gilbert Wham
  
  Me too, me too…
Lobster

That is one ambitious octopus. Or stupid. One or the other.
scifijazznik

Not so much “Octopus vs. Sea Lion” as “Octopus slowly and methodically devoured by Sea Lion.”

This almost makes up for this weekend. I took my 3-year-old son camping for the first time. We went to McGrath state beach. As we were walking to the beach and encountered a ghastly stench. When we got to the beach, we discovered the source– a dead sea lion had washed up on the shore. I’m no forensics expert, but I’d guesstimate it had been there a while.

As the fruit don’t fall far from the tree, my son already has quite a morbid sense of curiosity and was completely intrigued by the rotting corpse. Though he declined my offer to poke it with a stick, it was his favorite part of the weekend. I can’t wait to show him this video.
- Anonymous
  
  You should contact your local Marine Mammal Stranding Natwork if you find a stranded seal- even if it is dead.
  
  “All marine mammals are protected by federal law, even after death, and it is important to collect all scientific information from these animals better to understand the health of marine mammal populations.”
  
  http://research.calacademy.org/om/mmsn
Anonymous

So where can you see the video now that it’s been taken down?
Marcel

Of course, the natural behavior of a Sea Lion without a 2 pound camera/transmitter glued on its back, is more likely to involve epic deep sea battles with sea monsters we have yet to discover.
Junior

Too slow. Damned copyright claims.
GraemeM

Oh dear, its gone! And I would have liked to have seen it. These take down notices should include instructions on where it can be seen.
dculberson

I’m no sea lion, but that camera rig looks really uncomfortable. What glue is that attached with? My octopus hunting would be majorly hindered by having that glued to my back. Yikes. I would probably just end up ordering pizza until it fell off.