Mantis shrimp punches hole in fisherman's foot after being caught

Warning: Article contains graphic content

A fisherman was left with a hole in his foot after getting 'punched' by a mantis shrimp.

Filming his trip on the water, fisherman and YouTuber Mr. Markus captured the moment the creature attacked him and the aftermath of the damage it managed to cause.

In the video, the Mr. Markus can be seen sitting in his boat, reeling in his line.

“There’s something on there. It seems little. Is it another shrimp? It is! No way,” he says as he pulls up the colourful shrimp from the water.

Cutting it free from the line, the shrimp flails around the boat before attacking the fisherman’s foot. Take a look below, if you dare:

“Ow, that really hurt,” said the man, “That thing just grabbed on to me and smashed my foot.”

The shrimp had even managed to punch through his boots.

“Supposedly the mantis shrimp has the most powerful punch in the animal kingdom,” the fisherman said while removing his boot to show the damage to his foot, which was dripping with blood.

“The power of the freaking mantis shrimp, oh my gosh,” he said in disbelief. “That did not feel good at all.”

The video was shared on YouTube and commenters couldn’t believe what they’d saw, with one person saying: “Holy sh*t these guys are BADASS.”

Another wrote: “These shrimps are no joke, even if they miss their prey when 'punching', the shockwave is powerful enough to kill it. No need to say that handling them badly is a very bad idea.”

YouTube/Mr. Markus

Others were concerned about the fisherman leaving the shrimp lying on the boat saying: “Leaving the shrimp that just broke your skin through a boot laying right next to your nut sack doesn't seem like a very bright idea.”

Another wrote: “ummmm keeping him there between your legs probably not the best idea.”

While mantis shrimp are small, they are incredibly powerful.

In fact, they pack the strongest punch of any creature in the animal kingdom and according to Harvard University, their club-like claws can accelerate faster than a bullet out of a gun. 

Just one strike can cause a grab to lose an arm or break through a snail’s shell. They’ve even been able to take on octopus and win.

So fascinated by their strength, Harvard even created a robot to mimic their movements, to help them better understand the mechanics behind the shrimp’s power.

YouTube/Mr.Markus

“We are fascinated by so many remarkable behaviours we see in nature, in particular when these behaviours meet or excess what can be achieved by human-made devices,” said Robert Wood, the Harvard professor leading the research.

“The speed and force of mantis shrimp strikes, for example, are a consequence of a complex underlying mechanism. By constructing a robotic model of a mantis shrimp striking appendage, we are able to study these mechanisms in unprecedented detail.”

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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