Giant Squid

[00:00:00] Alex Re: Hello. Welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host, Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week, and I guarantee you, you're going to come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. In this episode, we're talking about an animal that was thought to be a mythical creature who could take down entire ships.

[00:00:25] Although there's not a lot of truth to that, these animals are real, swimming in the depths We know so little about them, even though they're huge. But that's one of the many reasons why they're such interesting animals to talk about. So let's get into our submarine as we talk about the elusive giant squid.

[00:01:01] There are over 300 different species of squid throughout the world. And they can be found in every ocean on Earth. But today, we're talking about one of the most well known squid species, the giant squid. Their scientific name is Architeuthis dux. In Greek, this basically means chief squid or most important squid, and its name probably has something to do with their massive size.

[00:01:27] Giant squid belong to the cephalopod class, along with octopuses, nautiluses, and cuttlefish. They're all invertebrates. Meaning that they don't have bones like me and you. But squid do have a hard structure that supports their body called the gladius or the pen. This hard structure is made of chitin, which is the same material that makes up the shells of crabs and lobsters and the exoskeletons of certain animals like spiders.

[00:01:57] The longest recorded giant squid specimen was 43 feet long. That's about half the length of an NBA basketball court.

[00:02:09] Some people have said that they've seen giant squid get up to almost 60 feet long, but this hasn't been officially recorded. The Norse myth of the Kraken is also said to be based off of sightings of giant squid. Kraken were believed to be able to take down huge ships because of their enormous size. And there actually have been reports of giant squid attacking small boats, but those haven't been confirmed, and it would be extremely rare for this to happen.

[00:02:39] Just like any other squid, they have ten limbs. Eight arms and two tentacles. The tentacles are much longer than the arms. We call them feeding tentacles because they help the giant squid with capturing prey. But we'll get to that a little later. They also have a mantle, which is like the middle part of their body, where they have eyes on either side of the body, and also a beak.

[00:03:03] Giant squid have some of the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, with a diameter of about one foot. They need those large eyes to absorb as much light as possible because of where they live. They're thought to spend most of their time in the deep sea, one to two thousand feet below the surface of the water.

[00:03:24] Some people say that they're able to dive more than three thousand feet below the surface. Sunlight can barely reach those depths, so it's extremely dark. So those huge eyes really come in handy. The fact that they spend so much time in the deep ocean is one of the reasons why they're some of the most elusive animals on Earth.

[00:03:44] Very few humans have ever been able to travel further than 1, 000 feet below the surface without specialized equipment. The deepest scuba dive ever recorded was 1, 090 feet. Under these depths, the pressure becomes so great that the molecules that make up our cells can actually become altered. Giant squid and other deep sea animals have a molecule called trimethylamine oxide, which helps to keep their cell structure under the pressure.

[00:04:14] It also makes them smell fishy. And up until recently, nobody had ever snapped a picture of a living giant squid. The only evidence that we really even had of them existing was when they washed up on shore already dead. Well, that and also some trace pieces of evidence left behind on other animals, but we'll get to that later.

[00:04:37] A Japanese biologist named Tsunemi Kubodera got the first ever picture of a live giant squid in 2004. Now, what do giant squid eat? We'll find out right after the break.

[00:05:02] Today, I want to give a shout out to Ben from Ontario, Canada. His favorite animals are cheetahs, elephants, and giraffes. Luckily, I can get a fun fact for all three of them because they all live in generally the same habitat. Did you know that elephants can go up to four days without drinking water? A cheetah can go up to ten days, and a giraffe can go up to three weeks without it.

[00:05:27] Pretty cool.

[00:05:36] Giant squid are carnivores, so they only eat other animals. And they mainly snack on fish and other squid. This is where those two extremely long tentacles that they have come into play. They use the tentacles to grab their prey and bring it towards their mouth. They can even shoot the tentacles out quickly to snag a fish.

[00:05:57] But they don't have fingers to help them hold onto things. Instead, they have suckers on each tentacle. Similar to what octopuses have. But unlike octopuses, these suckers have extremely sharp, tiny tooth like structures inside of them. You don't want to get grabbed by one of these tentacles, because they can really cut you up.

[00:06:18] So once they use their tentacles to bring their prey towards their mouth, their beak helps to rip up the flesh of their prey into more easily digestible pieces. And inside of their mouths, they have a structure called a radula, that's kind of like a tongue, that helps them break down the food even more.

[00:06:37] To move through the water, giant squid have water jets called siphons. These siphons are basically tubes that they move water through to propel them. And they're extremely hydrodynamic. They have smooth bodies, fins to help with direction, and they're shaped like a torpedo. Like a lot of things about giant squid, we don't know how fast they can move.

[00:07:00] Squid as a whole are some of the fastest invertebrates in the water, but giant squid are so large that it's likely they don't really move that quickly. When you're that big, there's not much out there that's gonna hunt you down, but giant squid do have one animal that loves to eat them, the sperm whale.

[00:07:20] We've known about the feud between sperm whales and giant squid since at least the early 1900s. Sucker marks can often be seen on the blubber of sperm whales that show there was some kind of struggle between the two animals. And giant squid parts have been found in sperm whale stomachs. Like I said earlier, aside from the few specimen that washed ashore, these markings on the whales were huge pieces of evidence for the fact that giant squid existed.

[00:07:49] In order to escape from sperm whales, they actually have ink sacs, just like other squid and octopuses. They squirt ink out of their bodies, which causes confusion to the other animals so that the squid can make a run for it. We don't know too much about the life cycle of the giant squid, but from what we do know, they live about six years.

[00:08:10] Giant squid have structures called statoliths that help them with balance, and they have growth rings, kind of like trees. Scientists can use the growth rings of the statoliths to determine the approximate age of individuals. It's also believed that giant squid only reproduce once in their entire life, but that one time doesn't go to waste.

[00:08:33] Females can lay millions of eggs at one time. Most of the fertilized eggs won't make it to adulthood, but that's why they lay so many of them. Only a few need to survive to keep the population going. Here's a question for you. Do squid have brains? Think about that, and I'll tell you the answer after the break.

[00:09:05] Time for today's trivia question. What is the largest flightless bird in South America?

[00:09:18] The answer is Okay, we're back. Even though we don't think of squid as the most intelligent creatures, they do have brains. The giant squid's brain is actually shaped like a donut. Not what you'd expect when you think of a brain. And what's even more interesting is that the esophagus, which is the tube that their food passes through, actually runs through the donut hole of the brain.

[00:09:59] Giant squid also have a lot of nerves in their tentacles, which allows them to react extremely quickly in order to catch prey. And their brain has two large optic lobes, which are used in processing vision. This tells us that vision is extremely important in the survival of the giant squid. A lot of squid species are social animals, but the giant squid seems to be a little more of a loner.

[00:10:26] We still don't fully know if this is true, but giant squid have only been caught on their own. And based on how other squid communicate, we may be able to make assumptions about the giant squid as well. There are some squid that use bioluminescence, or basically glowing in the dark, to communicate. We haven't seen this ability in giant squid though.

[00:10:48] Other squid use chemical signals called pheromones to communicate. What's really cool about these animals is that we're still learning so much about them, even with all the new technology that we have. So I'm sure one day I'll have to make some revisions to this episode based on the new information that we gather.

[00:11:07] Giant squid may be hard to find, but that doesn't mean they don't have an impact on the ecosystems that they live in. One thing we know is that they provide food for a bunch of different animals. Adults are preyed on by sperm whales, who are listed as endangered by the Endangered Species Act. And young giant squid are food for sharks and other fish in the environment.

[00:11:31] There are also so many other potential reasons why they benefit their own habitat. But we still don't know a lot about them, as I said earlier. And we don't know a lot about the deep sea in general. It's not even known how many giant squid are alive right now. But the estimates range from 4 million to over 100 million individuals.

[00:11:52] Since we're unsure how many giant squid there are, we can't really get a good gauge on their conservation status. But one thing is for sure. Human impact has reached every inch of the Earth. On a dive into the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest point in the ocean anywhere in the world, a researcher found a plastic bag and a candy wrapper.

[00:12:15] Only about six people in the world have traveled that far down, and I can bet you none of them were eating a candy bar down there. Researchers have also found that deep sea animals that they studied had microplastics in their guts. This is extremely harmful to their health. Because of a phenomenon called bioaccumulation, the problem of toxins only worsens as we go up the food chain, meaning giant squid and other top predators are undoubtedly harmed by this.

[00:12:46] Not to mention the fact that we are too. So even though very few people have seen giant squid in the wild, they're definitely feeling the impacts of what we're doing to the world. If you want to help giant squid and other deep sea animals, you should check out these organizations. The Ocean Agency, Ocean Research and Conservation Association, and Oceana.

[00:13:12] Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of giant squid. You can find the sources that we used for this podcast and links to organizations that we referenced at onwildlife. org. You can also email us with any questions at onwildlife. podcast at gmail. com. And you can follow us on Instagram at on underscore wildlife or on TikTok at On Wildlife.

[00:13:38] And don't forget to tune in next month for another awesome episode. And that's on wildlife.

[00:13:50] Jess Avellino: You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional, financial, real estate, tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.