page_title: Giant squid
section_title: Feeding
hierarchical_section_title: Giant squid / Ecology / Feeding
caption_attribution_description: Display @ Museum of Natural History, New York City, USAMuseum of Natural History
context_page_description: The giant squid is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. Giant squid can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of deep-sea gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at 12 m or 13 m for females and 10 m for males from the posterior fins to the tip of the two long tentacles. The mantle is about 2 m long, and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles rarely exceeds 5 m. Claims of specimens measuring 20 m or more have not been scientifically documented.
  The number of different giant squid species has been debated, but recent genetic research suggests that only one species exists.
  The first images of the animal in its natural habitat were taken in 2004 by a Japanese team.
context_section_description: Recent studies have shown giant squid feed on deep-sea fish and other squid species. They catch prey using the two tentacles, gripping it with serrated sucker rings on the ends. Then they bring it toward the powerful beak, and shred it with the radula (tongue with small, file-like teeth) before it reaches the esophagus. They are believed to be solitary hunters, as only individual giant squid have been caught in fishing nets. Although the majority of giant squid caught by trawl in New Zealand waters have been associated with the local hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) fishery, hoki do not feature in the squid's diet. This suggests giant squid and hoki prey on the same animals.
caption: The dramatization of an underwater encounter between the sperm whale and giant squid, from a diorama in the Hall of Ocean Life at the American Museum of Natural History
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