Watch an octopus attack a snorkeler -- and kill him with cuteness

When an octopus latched on to filmmaker Dirk Nienaber's arm, apparently trying to suck the life out of it, the Aussie turned the tables and made the cephalopod the sucker by revealing to the world that its best defenses are really more cute than creepy.

Nienaber says he was snorkeling for rock lobster near his home in Perth when the creature surprised him.

"I stuck my arm into a small underwater cave and was surprised to have an octopus latch onto my arm with all its strength," he wrote on YouTube last week. "It wouldn't budge for a few minutes and several attempts at pulling it off were unsuccessful as it would just latch onto my other arm...eventually it escaped to a seagrass bed with some probing."

We've seen that other octopuses have an inclination for photography, so it's possible this one was really most interested in Nienaber's camera.

Some octopuses have venom that can even be fatal to humans, but attacks are rare. In fact, octopus wrestling was actually a sport in decades past, although it's since been outlawed in places where it was popular, like Washington state. Of course, there are a number of species ranging from big scary dudes worth wrestling to this irresistible little guy.

Watch the video of the encounter below to judge for yourself if the cuddly octopus was successful in defending its underwater kingdom.