Most people think that everything in Australia can and will kill you if you give it the chance. That's largely overstated because not everything is deadly and you should be fine if you go out for a swim or a hike.
But there is a handful of things you must not, under any circumstances, ever touch or interact with.
One of those things is a blue-ringed octopus. More on why you shouldn't touch one of these bad boys in a second, but watch this video of someone casually holding one of the deadliest sea creatures in their hand.
People on Reddit made it clear just how ridiculous this video is with one person writing: "I am usually pretty calm, but this actually made my heart race. WHAT THE HELL. It's like holding death in your hand!"
Another added: "This is how tourists become statistics."
Of course you're all going to say: "Well if they can handle it without getting injured, then it must not be that bad."
To be fair, whoever held the octopus got away with their life because these creatures contain enough venom to kill up to 26 humans in just minutes.
Yeah - you read that right.
Their bites are often painless because they're so small, but once the venom starts to set in, the victim's body becomes paralysed and they start to suffer respiratory depression aka their breathing slows dramatically.
So the worst part about this is that while you're dying you're completely conscious. You slowly stop breathing and there's nothing you can do about it. You probably don't even have enough time to signal for help before the effects start to kick in.
The even scarier prospect is that there's still no anti-venom, so if this tourist did get bitten by the octopus they were handling then they could kiss their life goodbye.
If we're being honest, a blue ringed octopus of that size might not have induced death but if they were unlucky enough to come up against a larger predator then they'd be stuffed.
While there's no anti-venom, the victim would be able to survive as long as they were hooked up to a breathing device - but those aren't just floating around everywhere.
If one of those weren't around, someone would have the enormous physical task of breathing for the victim, which could take a while until the venom wore off and the person could inhale and exhale themselves.
So yeah, just don't try and pick these creatures up. Ever.
Featured Image Credit: azymaris/RedditTopics: Viral, venom, Community, Animals, Australia