Whales and Wiener Dogs

Female sperm whale with squid caught between her teeth (Tony Wu)

Photographer Tony Wu captured some extremely rare images off the Ogasawara Islands in Japan earlier this month. It’s believed the images chronicle adult female sperm whales teaching a baby how to dive for, and eat, giant squid.

The squid was caught far to deep for the photographer to snap pictures of the squid actually being caught, but Wu’s photos show the whales with squid still in their mouths at they return to the surface.

The squid was guessed to be up to 30 meters long.

These images were taken in the same area where Japanese scientists used baited hooks and cameras to capture live images of giant squid a few years back.

One scientist proposed this theory about the scene. “As echolocation is pivotal for sperm whales finding their prey, it is not out of the question that the females would release the dead squid at depth and let the calf echolocate and recognise it in the dark deep water, typically around 800 m deep.”

And no Japanese whale boats show up to kill anything.

More photos here.

This lego whale vs. squid is the greatest thing I have ever seen.

Some very talented gentleman named Ryan Rubino has created a lego version of a sperm whale versus a giant squid…and, yes, the whale is white.

There are 11 photos in the series…and they are all completely awesome. Go now and check them out.

This painting (well, a copy of it) is hanging on the wall of my office. If you don’t believe me, just come to New York City and ask for the guy that runs WhalesAndWienerDogs.com and I’ll prove it to you. It’s a whale fighting a squid who’s being attacked by some sort of Jesus-y “I can walk on water” T-rex.

"Bad Day On The High Sea" by Brandon Bird

Here’s an explanation from the artist’s web sheet.

Here, raw sexual aggression is symbolized by the sperm whale, while the squid acts as a thinly-disguised metaphor for the multi-armed oligarchies of Rockefeller, Hearst, and Morgan. Their battle plays against the backdrop of the sea, standing in for–what else?–the vastness of the unconscious mind.

Buy your own copy or tshirt here.

A "Small" Giant Squid On A New Zealand Beach (CRAIG SIMCOX/The Dominion Post)

A dead three meter long giant squid washed up on Island Bay beach in New Zealand yesterday.

The specimen, which was probably only dead for a couple hours when it was discovered, will be preserved and displayed at Te Papa museum with the colossal squid that’s on display there now.

Giant Cephalopod

• The largest known species of octopus has not eight arms, but seven.
• The Dana Octopus Squid attacks prey with blinding flashes of light emitted from its arms.
• The colossal squid’s esophagus runs through its brain, and if it tries to swallow something too big, it will die.
• Females are larger than males, some as long as 46 feet
• Colossal Squid arms and tentacles are equipped with sharp hooks: some swiveling, others three-pointed
• They can have eyes more than 16 inches across - the largest in the animal kingdom.
• Much of what scientists know about giant cephalopods comes from examining beaks found in sperm whale stomachs.

Answers after the jump. Continue reading True Or False: Giant Cephalopods (Squid and Octopus)