Octopus unrest traced to rare weather event, here's where

Monday, October 30, 2017, 12:04 PM - The various storms that have struck the British Isles in recent weeks, including Hurricane Ophelia, have left their mark, but they've also brought out a certain share of ocean-based weirdness.

Case in point: A recent spate of octopus apparently leaving the waters off of Wales to go for a stroll along certain beaches.

Videos posted on Facebook by the operators of dolphin watching company SeaMôr shows several curled octopuses, most not larger than a human hand, squirming their way over the sands over the past few days.\

"We collected the ones that were totally out of the water, and plopped them back in at the end of the pier, hopefully saving them from getting stranded," one post read.

RELATED: Five sort-of signs of the octopus uprising

SeaMôr Brett Jones told the Telegraph newspaper that despite efforts at returning them to the sea, some have still been found dead the following day on the beaches.

Several wildlife experts quoted by the Telegraph and the BBC say this kind of behaviour by the usually solitary and territorial animals is very unusual.

"As the areas where they are exhibiting this odd behaviour coincides with the two areas hit by the two recent low pressures depressions and associated storms of Ophelia and Brian, it could be supposed that these have affected them," James Wright, the curator of the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, told the newspaper. “It could simply be injuries sustained by the rough weather itself or there could be a sensitivity to a change in atmospheric pressure."

If that explanation holds up, it would be a good illustration of how sensitive sea life can be to uncommon weather events.

WATCH BELOW: Could this be the world's first octopus photographer?

SOURCE: The Telegraph