Inside Nature’s Giants: The giant squid
14 October 2010
Most wildlife documentaries look at how live animals behave in their natural habitat, but 'Inside Nature's Giants' gets under the skin to explore how creatures really work, by looking at their anatomy.
This week, it’s the turn of the giant squid, in a special edition of the show part-funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Giant squid are found in most of the world’s oceans and are among the biggest animals in the sea, yet are rarely seen. Long thought to be the stuff of legends, it was only in the late 19th century that it was first officially recorded by scientists, after one leviathan squid washed up on a beach in New Zealand.
This monster from the deep has never been filmed in its natural habitat, hundreds of metres under the sea, but occasionally specimens are brought to the surface by deep-sea trawlers.
In a 75-minute special edition of 'Inside Nature's Giants', comparative anatomist Joy Reidenberg and presenter Mark Evans fly out to New Zealand to join a team of experts and dissect a rare specimen of a giant squid. They also dissect a bizarre octopus that inhabits the 'midnight zone', a kilometre beneath the waves, where there is no light at all.
The dissection of these boneless beasts uncovers some truly extraordinary anatomy: The team discover that the giant squid has teeth on its tentacles and tongue; a throat that dives through the middle of its brain; and three hearts that power blue blood through a muscle-filled jet-propulsion cloak. They investigate how octopus and squid are masters of disguise and survive underwater warfare using camouflage, ink jets and spectacular light shows.
The team piece together the puzzle of how the giant squid hunts; how it jets through the water; how its quick-fire beak pulverises food and why it has such enormous eyes. They also discover the brutal truth about giant squid sex.
The giant squid is the eighth creature to be dissected by the 'Inside Nature's Giants' team. Previous episodes have delved into the depths of a 60-tonne fin whale, slithered through the insides of a monster python and marvelled at the sheer magnitude of the elephant.
If the show leaves you hungry for more, there is an interactive website to accompany the series supported by a People Award from the Wellcome Trust. Explore 3D models of the eight animals from series 1 and 2, see how the giants compete against each other and even invent your own nature’s giant. The site also includes interviews with the experts from the series, careers guidance and a ‘making of’ article with extra content from behind-the-scenes.
The Giant Squid special edition of 'Inside Nature's Giants' was produced for Channel 4 by Windfall Films, in association with the Wellcome Trust.
Image courtesy of Windfall Films