When you're growing up you're probably told not to bite off more than you can chew. While it's a pretty decent metaphor for life problems, it's also a practical strategy when eating food. Sometimes though, you'll misjudge what's on your fork and either nearly choke or have a very difficult time swallowing.
That's exactly what's happened to an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin who tried to eat an octopus whole.
Swimming in waters off Australia, the cetacean came across the lovely eight-armed mollusc and let its belly do the thinking. But as the octopus was sliding down the throat, it latched on, causing the dolphin to die from asphyxiation.
After a two-and-a-half-year study, researchers at Murdoch University reckon it's the first dolphin to have died this way. When they found the cetacean, nicknamed Gilligan, they ordered an autopsy to investigate how it met its grisly end because he was in good physical condition.
Study leader Nahiid Stephens has told National Geographic: "It really was a huge octopus, I just kept pulling and pulling and thought, 'My god!' It's still coming.
"[The dolphin] seems to have been extremely greedy and thought, 'You know what, I'm going to swallow it whole'."
Dolphins have an anatomical feature that allows them to eat larger food and still breath. They can disengage a piece of tissue that connects the larynx to their blow hole, meaning they can chow down on a particularly meaty meal without much issue.
According to the study, this crafty octopus threw a tentacle on Gilligan's larynx and ensured it couldn't reconnect.
Forget drowning, crucified, being burned or buried alive, I reckon this would be the worst way to die: having a meal fight back and strangle you from the inside until you stop breathing.
Stephens adds another interesting dimension to the story: "That octopus might have been, in theory, dead, but the sucker was still functional."
Another researcher at Murdoch University, Kate Sprogis has told National Geographic that dolphins regularly eat octopus and have a peculiar way to ensure they don't end up like Gilligan.
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They'll toss them high into the air so that when it lands on the ocean surface, it tenderises the meat. It's worth noting that the sick bastards do this while the octopus is still alive.
Ms Sprohis reckons old mate Gilligan 'got a bit cocky' and thought he had knocked the spirit out of his last meal - clearly, he was wrong.
Sources: National Geographic
Topics: Study, Interesting, Weird, Animals, Australia, dolphin