How the Giant Squid Eats

If your food had to pass through your brain on the way to your stomach -
You would need to chew your food up really well before swallowing!

Giant Squids have eight arms of similar length and two very long arms called tentacles that all extend out from their torpedo-shaped heads. They are classified as decopods as they have 10 arms (compared to octopods with 8 arms - such as octopuses). The arms have hundreds of suckers that are each ringed with sharp teeth. They hold their long tentacles close to their bodies and shoot them out to catch prey, which they bring back close in to their circle of arms. Squid will hold their food while their sharp parrot-like beak and raspy serrated tongue bites and minces it into very small pieces. The food must be in small pieces because after it forces it into its throat, the food has to pass down the esophagus through its donut-shaped brain before reaching the stomach. Larger pieces of food trying to pass through the brain could cause brain damage.

It's a wonder something as big as a city bus could remain unseen alive in its natural surroundings for so long. Squid are mollusks, and in the same family as octopuses, slugs, snails and cuttlefish. Giant Squids have eyes as big as basketballs. Their skin contains groups of pigment cells that allows it to change colors and blend in with its environment (camouflage) . They can even rapidly change their colors in an amazing array of colors and patterns when they want to startle a predator that is pursuing them. When danger is present (such as a sperm whale), a funnel near its head can shoot out clouds of black ink to confuse the predator and conceal it while it rapidly escapes by jet propulsion.

We know very little about the Giant Squid. The vast ocean holds many more secrets yet to be discovered.

Return to Giant Squid page - visit the list of resource links to learn much more and see photos.