Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video!

It can sometimes be surprising when animals exhibit human-like behavior. For instance, did you know that octopuses can say thank you!?

Pei Yan Heng is an animal lover who lives in Singapore. She often visits the Cyrene Reefs, where she loves observing all of the sea life. But one day, she found an animal in need of rescue.

There was a small octopus stuck in some shallow water when the tide went out.

Heng, who has a big heart, knew that she couldn’t just leave the animal stranded.

So she scooped it up and brought it back out to the edge of the ocean where it could get back to its home.

When she got to the water’s edge, she waded in a little and gently tipped the animal out. But the animal didn’t swim off right away. Instead, it wanted to show its appreciation to Heng.

At first, it stared up at Heng, blowing bubbles as it breathed.

In a little while, the octopus was feeling confident enough to approach Heng. It swam over to her legs slowly.

It then placed one of its tentacles onto the woman’s foot, as if to say “Thanks so much for helping me out there.”

Then it slowly moved away.

That sure was some amazing footage! Not everyone can say that they’ve made friends with an octopus!

Pei Yan Heng was filming the whole thing. She uploaded the video to her YouTube channel. She wasn’t expecting it to amaze so many people.

In no time at all, the video had gone viral, gaining millions of viewers.

To date, the video has had over 12 million views. It also has over 112,000 likes and 13,000 comments. People have been saying things like this:

Clearly, a minority of the commenters are skeptical that the octopus was actually thanking Heng, while others are convinced that it was.

But is there any way to prove that the octopus was thanking the woman and not just examining her feet?

Of course, some people will always dispute what animals are doing is actually friendly (some people say that dogs aren’t actually friendly animals!) But many leading academics believe that octopuses are able to exhibit social behavior.

For instance, Harvard University professor Peter Godfrey-Smith has spent lots of time around octopuses, and he states that they definitely are friendly to humans.

He even says that he once saw an octopus hold the hand of one of his colleagues and give him a lengthy tour of his den, like a child showing off their toys.

And it has been discovered that octopuses have half a billion neurons, which means that they are almost as intelligent as dogs!

If this weren’t convincing enough, then an experiment that took place in 2010 proved that octopuses are able to tell humans apart from one another, even when the humans are dressed in the same way. The study even claims that they like some people more than others.

So it turns out that octopuses are truly able to develop bonds with humans.

The video evidence, the studies and the statements of Harvard professors prove it! Nature sure can be surprising sometimes. Perhaps the next big pet trend will be octopuses? They seem much more interesting to have at home than a goldfish!

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Source: Pei Yan Heng