When Brett Stones and his dolphin-watching tour group SeaMor finished their evening excursion last Friday in Wales, it was already dark out. In the distance, they spotted something with an indiscernible yet familiar shape.

"It looked like a bit of a blob," said Stones. When the group approached, they saw that it was a curled octopus, a species commonly found off the beaches of Ceredigion.

Roughly a foot long, the animal was crawling about 30 feet inland. And it wasn't alone. As they walked through the area, they found 20 to 30 more octopuses seemingly crawling on land, in a space about half as big as a soccer field.

"It sort of brings out this mothering instinct. You just want