Clueless TikToker poses with poisonous blue dragon sea slug: ‘Anyone know what this is?’
Social media users responded with amazement and concern
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Your support makes all the difference.An Australian TikTok user’s potentially lethal encounter with a blue dragon sea slug went viral after his followers alerted him to the danger.
TikTok user @julianobayd shared the video of the toxic slug on Thursday and asked whether or not the creature was a Pokemon.
He did not know it was in fact a blue dragon sea slug, which can be lethal and caused havoc when they washed up on beaches in Sydney in February.
“Dude, you’re done. Literally,” one person wrote in response to the TikTok.
“Bro, that’s a blue dragon they are really venomous [and] they eat blue bottle jelly fish”, another said. “I did an assignment on them.”
In the video, @julianobayd appeared to stroke the dragon sea slug. He wrote in a caption: “It moves like a Pokemon”.
The finding was reportedly on a beach on Stradbroke Island, Queensland, and not far from Brisbane.
Blue dragon sea slugs are alternatively known as Glaucus atlanticus.
Steve Smith, the director of the National Marine Science Centre at Southern Cross University in Australia, said in an interview in 2017 that the creatures were not uncommon – and did not always sting.
“They might go unnoticed a little bit but anyone who gets down onto the beach will regularly see them,” Mr Smith said to Australian Geographic. “I’ve picked them up many times and I haven’t been stung.”
“They’re not like bluebottles. They may have the capacity to sting but it doesn’t mean they’re going to do it every time.”
The blue dragon feeds on bluebottle jelly fish, also known as Portuguese man o’ wars.
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