One of the more fascinating and bizarre conflicts this year comes via Canada’s Vancouver Island, where a group of fisherman found a bald eagle who was being strangled by a pink octopus that it had earlier attempted to attack.
In a video taken by the fishermen, the octopus can be seen holding tightly with all of its tentacles onto the bald eagle, who’s partially submerged in the water, with its wings spread out. It appears that the eagle had probably attempted to capture the octopus, but the cephalopod definitely had other plans, definitively turning the tables on the bird of prey.
Luckily for the bald eagle, the fishermen helped to release it from the vise grip of the octopus. Both animals were then returned to the wild, with no real harm done (except for, perhaps, the wounded pride of the bald eagle).
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com