Viral: Rare Giant Squid Caught on Camera

Viral: Rare Giant Squid Caught on Camera
YouTube/screenshot
Epoch Newsroom
2/9/2016
Updated:
2/9/2016

Footage of a giant squid trying to eat fish these Russian sailors caught has emerged.

And yes, this was confirmed real:

The exact species of the squid hasn’t been confirmed, but it’s probably not the rare colossal squid. It’s probably a giant squid, which is a relative of the colossal squid, according to the Huffington Post.

“Its eyes are supposedly the largest in the animal kingdom,” Leslie Schwerin, who did a documentary on giant squids, told Discovery.

The eyes, she added, are “as big as a basketball perhaps. I mean bigger than my head, which is amazing to think about. And that’s so they can see in the dark.”

“We can’t see down 2,000 feet (610 m) - it’s all dark to us - but they see things. They see light trickling through, and that’s because their eyes are so big.”

However, sightings of giant squids aren’t common, and they’re usually found dead. They can get up to 43 feet long, including their tentacles. They can also get to be hundreds of pounds.

NASA
NASA

Colossal squids are believed to be the largest squid species in terms of overall mass, getting to 46 feet in length and weighing possibly 1,650 pounds. Meanwhile, giant squids can get to as large as 43 feet, with a maximum weight of 606 pounds.