For the first time ever, a giant squid has been filmed in its natural habitat.
Because they live at such great depths, most of what we know about the
giant squid comes from washed-up carcasses. What we know is certainly
impressive - the razor toothed suckers on its tentacles, huge beak,
basketball-sized eyes and great length - but carcasses can tell us
little about topics such as behaviour.
To get
the footage, team leader and zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera and his team
used a submersible vessel to get to the squid's habitat. After around
100 descents, in waters about 1000km south of Tokyo, they finally
spotted a giant squid and followed it down to depths of 900m (2950
feet). They estimate it was around 3m long (9 ft) and carrying a bait
squid in its arms (though it appeared to have lost the two longest
tentacles). Quite a size, though it's believed they can reach a
staggering 10 metres (32 feet)!
The footage will be broadcast
in "Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real," shown on the Discovery Channel on
Jan. 27 at 8:00 p.m. EST/PST. A couple of seconds are available on the
BBC link.
Photo credit: Discovery Channel.
http://www.livescience.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
For the first time ever, a giant squid has been filmed in its natural habitat.
Because they live at such great depths, most of what we know about the giant squid comes from washed-up carcasses. What we know is certainly impressive - the razor toothed suckers on its tentacles, huge beak, basketball-sized eyes and great length - but carcasses can tell us little about topics such as behaviour.
To get the footage, team leader and zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera and his team used a submersible vessel to get to the squid's habitat. After around 100 descents, in waters about 1000km south of Tokyo, they finally spotted a giant squid and followed it down to depths of 900m (2950 feet). They estimate it was around 3m long (9 ft) and carrying a bait squid in its arms (though it appeared to have lost the two longest tentacles). Quite a size, though it's believed they can reach a staggering 10 metres (32 feet)!
The footage will be broadcast in "Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real," shown on the Discovery Channel on Jan. 27 at 8:00 p.m. EST/PST. A couple of seconds are available on the BBC link.
Photo credit: Discovery Channel.
http://www.livescience.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Because they live at such great depths, most of what we know about the giant squid comes from washed-up carcasses. What we know is certainly impressive - the razor toothed suckers on its tentacles, huge beak, basketball-sized eyes and great length - but carcasses can tell us little about topics such as behaviour.
To get the footage, team leader and zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera and his team used a submersible vessel to get to the squid's habitat. After around 100 descents, in waters about 1000km south of Tokyo, they finally spotted a giant squid and followed it down to depths of 900m (2950 feet). They estimate it was around 3m long (9 ft) and carrying a bait squid in its arms (though it appeared to have lost the two longest tentacles). Quite a size, though it's believed they can reach a staggering 10 metres (32 feet)!
The footage will be broadcast in "Monster Squid: The Giant Is Real," shown on the Discovery Channel on Jan. 27 at 8:00 p.m. EST/PST. A couple of seconds are available on the BBC link.
Photo credit: Discovery Channel.
http://www.livescience.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
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