Category: Critters

It’s not often that I can report a scandal for Squid Friday.

Wednesday night, the History channel aired a program from its new series, Monster Quest, about a supposed ‘giant’ Humboldt squid, and whether it could be the famed Kraken of the past. Though the Humboldt typically are no more than a couple of meters long, they are aggressive, a closer match for Kraken behavior than other, larger squid.

Now, Monster Quest is a pure cryptozoology show, though they do engage scientists, or least seem to engage scientists. This particular show tried something I’ve never seen tried previously: attaching a ‘squid cam’ to a Humboldt squid, and then filming what it uncovers as it dives to deeper depths.

The squid sank down, down, down. Along the way, Humboldts would ‘mouth’ the camera, whether as attack or curiosity is open to interpretation. It was at a 1000 feet that we caught a glimpse that, frankly, had me sitting up and out of my chair.

It was a beautiful, graceful, and large, squid, barely seen in the murky water. How big is hard to say, but you knew as soon as you looked at it, that it was significantly larger than the Humboldt carrying the camera. Here’s a portion of the video, though it doesn’t do justice to the larger squid image.

I immediately located a Tonmo thread on the film and have been following the debate associated with this film. It especially got interesting when Scott Cassell, who assisted with the show, left a note debunking most of the supposed facts, including the squid measurements.

The original size proposed by the show writers was that this squid was 108 feet long. They came up with this value by measuring distances based on what they decided was an eye reflection. Well, few people in the Tonmo thread bought into this, including Scott, but he did propose that it could be a 25 foot, or more, Architeuthis. That’s Latin for my favorite, Giant Squid.

If the squid was an Architeuthis, then this is still a very exciting discovery. The only other film of a live Architeuthis was hooked on a fishing line, which is an unnatural environment for the creature. This film would show the squid in very realistic surroundings. In addition, show it in waters that I didn’t think had evidence of Architeuthis.

Dr. O’Shea is attempting to get a better copy of the video, and I imagine he’ll have excellent input into what the squid is. In the meantime, the cryptos are having fun.

update

A better video.

The legendary Washoe died this week:

Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

I met Washoe when I was studying at Central Washington University and was lucky enough to take a linguistics course with Dr. Roger Fouts.

Frankly, Washoe intimidated the hell out of me. She was queen of the domain, and we students knew it. We were warned not to stare when we met the chimps, as it’s considered a threatening gesture. We crowded into the room, desperately trying not to seem like we’re staring, as Washoe proceeded to stare intently, and fixedly, at us during the entire visit. However, when you looked in her eyes, you didn’t see hostility. You did see what I can only describe as a wicked sense of humor. She was wonderful.

Rest in peace, old girl.

Via Retropectacle. I also recommend reading the Friends of Washoe Timeline, even if Dr. Fouts does refer to CWU as a ‘backwater’ university. Which it was, thank goodness.

Perfect celebration for cat friday. Via Metafilter–be sure to check out comments.

Even better: squid with human teeth for squid friday.

Cephalopodcast has found a couple of terrific old films on the ‘fish from hell’ from the Prelinger Archives. As the Cephalopodcast mentions, it’s not the footage so much as it is the accompanying voiceover. It’s also an interesting study in our earlier ‘science’ investigations, and the fact that in these old ‘science’ films, the scientists tend to kill everything they meet.

We actually have come a long way when it comes to scientific investigation, but not when it comes to mixing science and entertainment. Last week, Cephalopodcast also posted about the letter to Discovery about Shark Week, and the fact that this series has degenerated into nothing more than a “Jaws 101” rather than an exploration of more unknown but perhaps less dramatic shark species.

Then there’s the Japanese ‘scientific study’ of whales, where many of the whales killed are pregnant. Of course, the whaling industry says this is a good thing. Whalers are about the only hunters I know of who would claim that killing pregnant females is a ‘good thing’. Perhaps the whaling industry would like to expand into killing baby fur seals, too?

But then, perhaps I’m just being overly emotive. (via Cobbers)

I couldn’t be a cephalopod fan without being excited about the discovery of the octosquid off of Hawaii. This seeming half octopus, half squid will lead to much interesting speculation. And it’s a beautiful creature, too.

I could wish, though, that we could discover these creatures in circumstances other than them being accidental catches, recovered only to die. What if killing this one was enough to endanger the entire species?

Ah well. A bittersweet moment.