Sunday, February 13, 2011

One more ocean post and then I promise I'm done


I just had to show you Z-Man's finished squid report. I know you all were hoping, wondering... will she post the squid report? When will she post the squid report? Well, the wait is over. Thank you for your patience.

The front, with an arrow pointing to the sperm whale, major predator of the colossal squid.

The inside, showing the colossal squid adding a small boat to his collection, which already includes the Bismarck (and you thought the British sunk it!) with a sperm whale and submersible thrown in for good measure.

If you're not terribly interested in the colossal squid, you'll probably want to stop reading now. If you are interested, here is the text of the above report, in a more readable format:

The Colossal Squid can grow as big as 59 feet. The squid lives in the midnight zone, where it is pitch black and all the bioluminescent fish live. The squid has the largest eyes of any animal, about the size of soccer balls. The squid eats toothfish and other squid. Sperm whales are squid's predators and they catch them by echolocation, the process of sending out sound waves which bounce off objects and back to the whale. We know this because we have found squid beaks and tentacles in their stomachs. The squid squirts ink at sperm whales and then uses jet propulsion. Pacific Sleeper Sharks are also predators of the squid. In 2007, a New Zealand antarctic fishing boat caught a squid eating a toothfish and hauled it aboard. They brought it to the Tepapa Museum in New Zealand. I think that some day they'll find squids attacking ocean liners and passenger planes.

And there you have it, folks. Better cancel those cruises to the Antarctic.

2 comments:

  1. Valerie -

    This is priceless! When my son was 4, he was also crazy over the giant squid - that was 10 years ago and we had such a difficult time finding information. We were requesting books through ILL from other states to satisfy his need for knowledge. I love seeing that there's others who encourage kids to follow their natural curiosity for learning.

    Thanks for the post, Jacquie in Kansas

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  2. Jacquie,

    It WAS difficult to find information on the giant squid - apparently no one has ever seen one alive and swimming in the ocean. I find that amazing! So when I found a toy giant squid and a sperm whale at Michael's Craft Store last week I just about flipped! You can bet those little treasures came home with me.

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