Tentacle from rare seven-arm octopus washes up on Aberdeenshire beach

A tentacle from a rare seven-arm octopus has washed up on a beach in Aberdeenshire .

The large tentacle was spotted by a member of the public at Forvie National Nature Reserve in Collieston on Sunday.

Experts examined it and determined that it likely belonged to a rare septopus - a giant seven-armed octopus.

It lives hundreds of metres below the surface of the sea and is one of the world's largest species of octopus.

Also known giant gelatinous octopus or blob octopus, they have eight arms like other types.

But in males one of the arms is also a reproductive organ that they attach to females when mating.

NatureScot’s Forvie National Nature Reserve manager Catriona Reid said: "We were first made aware that there was something odd on the beach over the weekend, when a local walke