A giant colour-changing octopus was found alive on an Ayrshire beach.
The eight-limbed sea creature was found by a stunned dog walker at Irvine after finishing his shift at work.
With a head about the same size as a football, the poisonous mollusc even shot ink at a swimmer trying to rescue the animal.
Ryan Brawley spotted the octopus that he initially thought was dead but on closer inspection was changing colour.
Fresh from a nightshift on March 20 at around 7.30am, Ryan found the intelligent creature not far from the car park while walking his dog.
He said the octopus was the biggest he'd ever seen.
"It was about the size of a football going flat. Pretty big one," Ryan said.
"I’ve seen them before, usually really small, always in sheltered areas as well. Irvine is wide open so I was surprised."
Ryan decided to try and get the octopus back into its natural habitat after seeing that it was still moving.
However, a wild swimmer said she would take it back instead but the animal squirted ink at her before escaping back to the sea.
He added: "When I touched it with my foot it changed colour and moved so I went and asked the woman who just came out the water for her gloves.
"She says she would put it back in as she was already wet so she just lifted it up and sat it back in.
"It squirted purple ink at her when it came to its senses then swam off."
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