Octopus Walking Quickly Across a Beach Land, Video: Fact Check

Story:

Surprising video – Octopus walking quickly across a beach land in Qatar.

Other Versions

Octopus taking a stroll on the beach at Sunset.

Octopus is walking along the beach pic.twitter.com/OHOOoNiiAR
— Freefolk (@freefoIk74) August 7, 2020

Fact Check:

A ‘surprising’ video in circulation purports to show an Octopus walking quickly across a sandy beach land in Qatar. Other versions of the story say the Octopus is taking a stroll on the beach at Sunset. No, the claims are not true – the video is not real and a CGI art.

Not Video of Octopus Walking on a Beach Land

With the unusual claims, the viral video garnered millions of views spreading on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram. However, what you see in the video is not a real Octopus moving on a beach land. Visual effects artist from Qatar, Alex Z ghost3dee created and shared the digital, CGI art project on Instagram in early August 2020. He said the ‘Octie Churro’ is taking a stroll on the beach in his new, revamped body and dynamics model. Earlier in June, the artist shared a quick render test of the Octie Churro’s initial attempts to climb a steep wall.

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A post shared by Alex Z (@ghost3dee)

Can Octopuses Walk on Land?

Although not as quick as inside water, some mysterious Octopuses can in fact travel small distances across land. For instance, watch the video below showing an Octopus walking on land at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in California.

An expert on Octopus behavior at the University of Lethbridge in Canada, Jennifer Mather says Octopuses can survive out of water for a good 10-15 minutes without damage – as long as they stay damp. When their skin stays moist they can survive by getting some gas exchange through it. Mather also said some deep-living octopus species come closer to shore to mate,

A senior curator of marine invertebrates at the Museum Victoria in Australia, Julian Finn gave some more information. As a matter of fact, crawling along out of water is not uncommon for species of octopus living in the intertidal or near shore. Finn explains when the tide goes down; many octopus species come out to hunt in the pools of water left behind by the receding tide. Humans do not see many Octopuses creeping out of the ocean because most of the species are nocturnal. But again, the video in question is not real and a digital animation art project.