RARE PHOTOS: Sperm Whale EATS Giant Squid

Guest Post from Dave Hansford, National Geographic

Carrying the remains of a roughly 30-foot (9-meter) giant squid in her jaws, a female sperm whale, with a calf at her side, swims near the surface off Japan's Bonin Islands (map)in the northwestern Pacific. Taken on October 15, this and other "absolutely sensational" new pictures offer rare proof of the sperm whale's taste for giant squid, said giant squid expert Steve O'Shea of the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand.

The pictures may also reveal that adult sperm whales, which grow up to 59 feet (18 meters) long, use pieces of their prizes to teach youngsters how to catch their own, O'Shea told National Geographic News.

The group of five adults and one calf kept diving deep in unison, photographer Tony Wu told the Daily Mail. "It seemed as if the adult whales were trying to teach the baby to dive and also to eat squid," he said.

Squid In Mouth

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Comments

[CommunistUtopia]

12:28 PM on 11/07/2009

As a Liberal Democrat, I am outraged by the violence I see here. The whale should not have eaten the squid and should consider more vegetation.

[Avery Morrow]

11:50 AM on 11/07/2009

The Smithsonian has long held a sculpture of what we IMAGINED a squid and whale meeting would be like:

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/ocean/01_dioramas/n_spermwhale.php

Looks like they'll have to update that now.

[mamacat]

08:21 PM on 11/06/2009

Amazing pics, thank you.

[Albert Amato]

06:41 PM on 11/06/2009

I'll bet a little Chardonnay would go great with that Calamari.

[HisPetGoat]

03:01 AM on 11/06/2009

I think putting it the other way around sounds kinda Freudian.

[onelight]

01:26 PM on 11/05/2009

Soo...umm...is this how it all ends for Goldman Sachs?

Someday?

Just asking...

From Matt Taibbi's "The Great American Bubble Machine" in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is A GREAT VAMPIRE SQUID wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

[groot]

01:08 PM on 11/05/2009

shouldn't the headline be "glen beck eats sushi?"

[martinchill]

12:56 PM on 11/05/2009

"Share Your Best Rare Whale Photo"

can i get a WTF?

[NorthSide]

11:13 AM on 11/05/2009

All we need here is Captain Nemo's submarine off on one side.

[aznurse]

10:22 AM on 11/05/2009

then the whale was promptly killed

[gallimaufry03]

09:45 AM on 11/05/2009

SQUIDWARD!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[rf dude]

09:43 AM on 11/05/2009

Tastes like chicken-of-the-sea...

Anybody got a toothpick??

[x1cness]

03:31 AM on 11/05/2009

For a brief moment I thought the first couple of pictures were 3D renders.

[tehixe]

12:08 AM on 11/05/2009

Only one thing to say: OM NOM NOM! It's in caps cuz whales are big.

[fbs]

02:43 PM on 11/05/2009

OM NOM NOM! if there ever was one.

[groosemoose]

11:50 PM on 11/04/2009

What magnificent, beautiful creatures.

Too bad the Japanese are still blaming them for Hiroshima.

[rf dude]

09:45 AM on 11/05/2009

Or that whales didn't stop Godzilla from coming up outta the ocean...