Fun Fauna Fact Friday

Squid and octopi are some of the coolest animals on earth, so today's Fun Fauna Fact Friday is a special one. The reasons that I find squid so fascinating is that they are incredibly smart and curious, often mirroring the observation habits of the divers that study them. They are incredibly adaptable to their environments- Humboldt squid nearer to the shore (quite a precarious place for a squid) have been found to be extremely violent but when seen further out to sea they are calm and playful. They are mysterious and elusive which adds to their allure. They can eat whales and sharks which is, admit it, completely badass for a “mere mollusk”. They are beautiful and strange.

Wellington's Te Papa museum is home to the only colossal squid display in existence and she is a pretty incredible lady. They caught the wee colossal squid somewhere in the Ross Sea in February of 2007. Because they are rare and hard to preserve, we don’t really know how big they get, but, keep in mind that squid’s lower rostral beaks as long as 49 millimetres have been found in sperm whale stomachs. The female squid on display at the museum only measures 42.5, so they can be significantly larger in size.

Now the fun facts:

-Their eyeballs are the size of soccer balls (which is the largest of any known animal) these allow them to see at amazingly deep depths in the ocean.

-Primarily, they shoot out their two largest tentacles to catch prey. Each tentacle is equipped with razor sharp hooks that rotate 360 degrees. The more the prey struggles to get away the further in the hooks get.

-Squid are very dainty eaters, politeness aside; they must take small mouthfuls since their narrow throats pass right through their brain, so too big of a bite would cause brain damage (you can't make this stuff up)

On this particular colossal squid, the large round body (mantle) is so enormous that were you to fry her up you would have calamari rings the size of truck tires and keep in mind she is just a baby.