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RARE PHOTOS: Giant Squid Eaten by Sperm Whale
nationalgeographic ^ | October 29, 2009--

Posted on 11/02/2009 1:17:43 PM PST by JoeProBono

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.


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: calamari; cryptozoology; giantsquid; jpb; kraken; squid; whale
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To: a fool in paradise


21 posted on 11/02/2009 1:37:40 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

Sperm Whale Eats Giant Squid...

There is a joke in there somewhere...


22 posted on 11/02/2009 1:38:13 PM PST by DariusBane (Even the Rocks shall cry out "Hobamma to the Highest")
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To: Thud

FYI


23 posted on 11/02/2009 1:39:09 PM PST by Dark Wing
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To: rahbert


24 posted on 11/02/2009 1:40:21 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono
Sequel to?

25 posted on 11/02/2009 1:42:37 PM PST by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: FlashBack

26 posted on 11/02/2009 1:43:47 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: BGHater


27 posted on 11/02/2009 1:46:32 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

Now THAT one looks giant!!!!!!


28 posted on 11/02/2009 1:46:33 PM PST by FlashBack ('0'bama: "Katrina on a Global Level")
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To: Kartographer
Man, I surfed into that flick on SciFi the other night.

Wow. What a phenomenally bad movie. Really awful. Not just a tongue-in-cheek flick TRYING to be bad (think "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes") ....but a movie still pretentiously trying to be serious, while everyone in the theater is laughing at it.

What I'm trying to say here is that it's a bad movie. Skip it.

29 posted on 11/02/2009 1:53:34 PM PST by wbill
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To: JoeProBono

30 posted on 11/02/2009 1:59:54 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: wbill

Yes you are correct I caught about ten minutes of it and it was all I could stand!


31 posted on 11/02/2009 2:03:31 PM PST by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: JoeProBono

Hmmmm. Ika. Delicious ...


32 posted on 11/02/2009 2:06:12 PM PST by altair (All I want for Christmas is NO legislation passed for the rest of the year)
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To: JoeProBono

LOL - Fake!


33 posted on 11/02/2009 2:07:55 PM PST by GulfBreeze (Palin 2012 - For The Change You Wanted!!!)
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To: altair
Hmmmm. Ika. Delicious

But odiferous. LOL!

34 posted on 11/02/2009 2:13:08 PM PST by mollynme (cogito, ergo freepum)
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To: JoeProBono
From the article:

Sperm whales are voracious hunters of squid, and one animal can consume an estimated 110 million tons a year.

110 million tons would the whale's weight in squid every four seconds 24x7 for a year.

35 posted on 11/02/2009 2:14:08 PM PST by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2374351/posts


36 posted on 11/02/2009 2:19:09 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono; cogitator; neverdem

Just something interesting ping ...


37 posted on 11/02/2009 2:19:50 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: JoeProBono

%%
When a whale’s got your head, you’re about good as dead - Calamari...
%%


38 posted on 11/02/2009 2:37:08 PM PST by mikrofon (Somewhat larger than a Moray)
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To: JoeProBono

39 posted on 11/02/2009 2:37:30 PM PST by nesnah
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To: JoeProBono

the headline made me think this was about Bill Clinton eating at an Italian restaurant....


40 posted on 11/02/2009 2:40:09 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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