The feud of the ocean: giant squid and sperm whale

Learn more about two giant sperm whales and giant squid in their struggle to survive.

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Northern fishermen often tell that, once upon a time, there was a sea monster, occasionally rising from the sea floor. It tossed long taps like giant snakes, wrapped in the ship's column, dragged the ships to the bottom of the sea and ate dead water in the water. After successive discoveries, this animal has become somewhat familiar and popular with humans. It is called the giant squid - a genus of many species with the scientific name Architeuthis .

Huge monster in the story of Nordic fishermen.

Simply put, these are big soft-bodied monsters with great tentacles, which can be dozens of times bigger than us.

Determination of a giant squid washed ashore.

Humans know very little about giant squid because they live in deep water in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. This is a large-sized mollusk and possesses the most "oversized" eyes in the animal world. Scientists believe that giant squid can reach 18m in length and about a ton in weight.

As expected of such a scary size, this "monster" can flutter across the oceans without fear of any creature. However, they have an archenemy, which is another big ocean monster - sperm whale , the largest large predator on the planet.

An adult male sperm whale can be up to 20.5m long and weighs up to 45 tons. This is also the largest toothed animal in the world.

Sperm whales often dive very deep to find food.

The "favorite" dish of these giants is nothing else - that is the squid uncle. Sperm fish can dive as deep as 3 km, hold their breath underwater for about 90 minutes, while other mammals often dive only about 400m and hold their breath for 35 minutes. This "superhuman" ability has put sperm whales into the deepest diving mammals in the world.

The reason that sperm whales are capable of deep diving and holding their breath for so long is because they have a large lung capacity with small nostrils. The sperm whale only breathes with a left nostril, the other side is sealed. This nostril tube turns into a large potting cavity to hold air, which is approximately equal to its lung capacity.

At the same time, sperm whale's brain is the largest of all known or extinct animals - weighing up to 8kg. However, the brain formation index of sperm whales is not really high, generally lower than dolphins and many other whales.

In particular, giant squid is the subject of the list in the "menu" of sperm whales . Giant squid with healthy "tentacles" are also formidable opponents for many marine animals. Despite being inferior, when confronted with this "hunter" , the giant squid also tried to counter it as much as possible to try to survive.

In the terrible war between "hunters" and prey erupting in the deep water of the sea, sperm whales are often victors. They showed the superior strength of a "hunter".

There have been sperm whales caught by humans with scars of ink tentacles, which shows the fierce resistance of giant squid. A clearer evidence, in the stomach of these sperm whales, is often found the giant squid meat that is being digested badly. That is all that remains of the defeated.

And we know that the wars between big marine creatures, between "hunters" and prey are still taking place in the deep water of the ocean as an endless recirculation of the self Of course.