Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux)

Giant Squid overview

The giant squid is one of the largest invertebrates on Earth and the likely source of the kraken legend. It has eight arms and two much longer feeding tentacles tipped with toothed suckers, and eyes about the size of a dinner plate. It lives hundreds of meters down in the open ocean, so almost everything known about it comes from carcasses washed ashore, animals caught in trawls and remains found in sperm whale stomachs. A live giant squid was not photographed in its habitat until 2004 and not filmed there until 2012. Genetic studies indicate a single worldwide species.

How Long Do Giant Squid Live?

Giant squid are thought to live only about 2–5 years. The estimate comes from counting growth rings in statoliths, tiny balance stones in the head, and it is uncertain because nobody has followed a living animal over time. If it is right, giant squid grow astonishingly fast, reaching full size in just a few years, and like most squid they probably breed once and die.

How Much Does a Giant Squid Weigh?

Large giant squid weigh roughly 150–275 kg (330–610 lb). Females are much bigger than males: the heaviest well-documented females are about 275 kg, while males top out near 150 kg. The colossal squid of the Southern Ocean is shorter but heavier, reaching about 500 kg.

How Long Is a Giant Squid?

The largest giant squid reach about 12–13 m (39–43 ft) in total length for females and about 10 m (33 ft) for males. Most of that is the two thin feeding tentacles; the mantle, or body, is rarely more than 2.25 m (7.4 ft) long. Older claims of 18 m or more are not backed by measured specimens and probably reflect tentacles that were stretched like elastic.

What Do Giant Squid Eat?

Giant squid are carnivores that eat deep-sea fish and other squid. They grab prey with the clubbed tips of their two long tentacles, pull it to the arms and slice it up with a sharp beak, because food must pass through a narrow esophagus that runs through the middle of the brain. They appear to be solitary hunters.

Diet type: carnivore. Deep-sea fish and other squid, including smaller giant squid, seized with the two long feeding tentacles and cut into small pieces by the beak and toothed radula.

Where Do Giant Squid Live?

Giant squid live in the deep open ocean, mostly between about 300 and 1,000 m (1,000–3,300 ft) down. They have been recorded in every ocean, most often along continental and island slopes off Japan, New Zealand, the North Atlantic and southern Africa, and only rarely in tropical or polar seas.

Are Giant Squid Endangered?

The giant squid is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, and its population trend is unknown. It is not targeted by any fishery and is caught only occasionally as deep-water trawl bycatch. The number of beaks found in sperm whale stomachs suggests that giant squid are far more common than the rarity of sightings implies.

Least Concern

Giant Squid fun facts

• Giant squid eyes are about 27 cm (11 in) across, among the largest in the animal kingdom, and probably help them spot the faint glow stirred up by approaching sperm whales.
• The first photographs of a live giant squid in its natural habitat were taken off Japan's Ogasawara Islands in 2004, and the first video there followed in 2012.
• Sperm whales are the giant squid's main predator, and many whales carry circular scars left by the toothed rings inside the squid's suckers.
• Giant squid keep themselves buoyant with an ammonium solution in their tissues, which is lighter than seawater and makes the flesh taste unpleasant to people.
• DNA from specimens collected around the world is remarkably similar, which points to a single global species of giant squid.

Rankings and comparisons

Giant Squid FAQ

Related animals

All invertebrates