Incredible video from South Africa captures the moment an injured giant squid grabbed hold of a surfer's board and would not let go.

James Taylor was surfing in Melkbosstrand, South Africa when he says he spotted the injured cephalopod and went over, but was shocked to find that the squid swung its tentacles around the surf board and clung on.

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In his replies under the video, Taylor said that they ended up killing the squid as it was so hurt: "it was quite badly injured and barely alive when I caught it. It didn't even really try and get away, so we ended up putting it out of its misery when we got to the beach."

Taylor said that he contacted the aquarium but as it was a holiday they were unable to send anyone out. When they got the squid to the shore, Taylor says the group dissected it and sent pictures and videos to the aquarium who then forwarded them onto a professor who Taylor said had been studying the creatures for 15 years.

"He was very excited about the find. He told me the next day that he has only seen 5 wash up on South African shores since he started his studies." Taylor wrote, adding that the professor had said the creature was a mature male.

In the post, Taylor said that he found it interesting that the giant squid's main predator is the sperm whale: "Researches often find the remains of giant squid in dead sperm whales and they estimate that around 4.3 million giant squids get eaten by them per year, so there are quite a lot of them out there!"

South Africa