One summer day off the northern coast of New Zealand, Rochelle Constantine noticed something strange on the water’s surface.

"That's an octopus! Oh my god!" an observer exclaims Wednesday Davis/University of Auckland An octopus got to rest its many legs when it ended up aboard a mako shark for a leisurely ride.

Researchers spotted an orange blob near a shark's head. It turned out to be an octopus along for a ride. Wednesday Davis / University of Auckland In December 2023, marine ecologist Rochelle ...

Scientists were amazed to spot a Maori octopus hitchhiking on the back of a speedy shortfin mako shark, an unusual sight captured in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf. It’s not every day you see an ...

If you’re going to hitch a ride in the ocean, you might as well get one on the fastest-swimming shark. That’s what one octopus must have been thinking a while back. Researchers discovered an ...

An octopus got to rest its many legs when it ended up aboard a mako shark for a leisurely ride. In a video captured in December 2023 and released in March 2025, the two species were in peaceful ...