Many tourists who visit wildlife parks are often spotted getting clicked with different animals. They are always usually under the supervision of the park authorities. However, in a recent scary incident, a woman ended up holding one of the most venomous animals on her palm, unknowingly. The sea creature, which is not commonly seen, has been identified as the blue-ringed octopus.
As per a report in The Mirror, the incident has been shared by a TikTok user named @Kaylinmarie21. In the clip, she has described how she was unaware of the capabilities of the tiny animal. The video shows the brown body and dark circles octopus, calmly placed on the woman’s palm. She had done this to click pictures with the animal as a part of one of the popular touristy things. The enthusiastic traveller, after the entire episode, out of curiosity googled about the animal, only to realise that it carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes.
She has also mentioned in her video that after coming to know about the information she panicked called her father. Fortunately, she was safe and unharmed, but social media has clearly not been able to keep calm after coming to know about this.
According to Ocean Conservancy, this animal’s venom is 1,000 times more powerful than cyanide. What is scarier is that, at times people do not even realise that they have been envenomed till it’s too late. Further, to date there is no blue-ringed octopus antivenom available and the only way to save a person bitten by the deadly creature is by giving artificial respiration immediately.
If an individual has been envenomated by the blue-ringed octopus then their symptoms may include nausea, vision loss or blindness, loss of senses and loss of motor skills. The sting eventually leads to muscle paralysis which ends up paralysing the muscles needed for breathing. As a result, the person dies of a respiratory arrest.