There's an adorable animal in Australia that looks like it's wearing striped pyjamas – but its cuteness conceals a toxic weapon

Sometimes it’s nice to spend the day in your pyjamas – but your whole life?

This squat, rotund little cephalopod is a striped pyjama squid, says Stuart Blackman. It grows to only about 5cm in length, and also goes by the name of striped dumpling squid.

Native to shallow coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific, it spends its days in bed – seagrass beds to be precise – buried in sand with only its eyes protruding. It emerges only at night to hunt small crustaceans and fish.

Despite its sleepy habits and appearance, it is no pushover. Those distinctive stripes may be a warning to predators. When threatened it produces copious quantities of slime, which is thought to be toxic – a rare example of a poisonous predatory mollusc. 

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