Whee! Look at this cool feature! Blogger now allows us to type in Hindi! Look at this. This is probably going to make NO sense to many people out there, but here it is!
ब्लॉगर नोव अल्लोव्स उस तो टाईप इन हिंदी! थिस इस ग्रेट! ओरिएण्टल पीपुल कैन नोव रीड थिस!
Translates to: Blogger now allows us to type in Hindi! This is great! Oriental people can read this!
That's just cool... :)
Coming up: Raccoon Day Report.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
Eyes and Tentacles and Suckers, Oh My!
Today, May 5th, is Giant Squid Day on my blog. And hereth starts the Giant Squid info.
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Coleoidea
Order: Teuthida
Suborder: Oegopsina
Family: Archituthidae
Genus: Archetuthis
Size
The giant squid we know, grows to monstrous dimensions, hence the frightening stories and sailor superstitions about this creature. One glance at this animal and you think that this is the end of you and your boat. The females have been measured up till 13 m at full length, and the males 10 m. That is pretty big. The females are larger, which is the reason why mating is so dangerous for males in the species of the giant squid. Look at the size of this great big brute!
Reproduction
The mating habits of the giant squid are not known, but many scientists have concluded that the male giant squid injects sperm with his spermatophore (which about 3 ft long, eww!) into the female giant squid and from therefore, the sperm is carried to the eggs and thus fertilized. We are not sure about this, as it is yet not proven.
Feeding
Giant squids feed on almost anything that they can find. Fish, sharks, pretty much the carnivore of the ocean. They are preyed on by sperm whales, which find their ammonia flavored flesh attractive. Lucky for them, we don't have any use for the giant squid or its ammonia, and we don't bother it as much as other species of animal. It is said that there have been great fights between giant squids and sperm whales, ending in either both rivals dead or one alive and deeply wounded. Both fighters are equally matched, and therefore the duels between these two colossus are almost always ended in death. Look at the marks of the suckers on a sperm whale's skin!
That's my report, basically. The giant squid is a shadowy creature and it rarely is caught on film, as shown here. If you see the video, you can see what I mean by being LARGE. I hope you enjoyed it, and tomorrow, check back for another animal report! Practice makes perfect!
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Coleoidea
Order: Teuthida
Suborder: Oegopsina
Family: Archituthidae
Genus: Archetuthis
Size
The giant squid we know, grows to monstrous dimensions, hence the frightening stories and sailor superstitions about this creature. One glance at this animal and you think that this is the end of you and your boat. The females have been measured up till 13 m at full length, and the males 10 m. That is pretty big. The females are larger, which is the reason why mating is so dangerous for males in the species of the giant squid. Look at the size of this great big brute!
Reproduction
The mating habits of the giant squid are not known, but many scientists have concluded that the male giant squid injects sperm with his spermatophore (which about 3 ft long, eww!) into the female giant squid and from therefore, the sperm is carried to the eggs and thus fertilized. We are not sure about this, as it is yet not proven.
Feeding
Giant squids feed on almost anything that they can find. Fish, sharks, pretty much the carnivore of the ocean. They are preyed on by sperm whales, which find their ammonia flavored flesh attractive. Lucky for them, we don't have any use for the giant squid or its ammonia, and we don't bother it as much as other species of animal. It is said that there have been great fights between giant squids and sperm whales, ending in either both rivals dead or one alive and deeply wounded. Both fighters are equally matched, and therefore the duels between these two colossus are almost always ended in death. Look at the marks of the suckers on a sperm whale's skin!
That's my report, basically. The giant squid is a shadowy creature and it rarely is caught on film, as shown here. If you see the video, you can see what I mean by being LARGE. I hope you enjoyed it, and tomorrow, check back for another animal report! Practice makes perfect!
Hello All!
I get almost all of my information from the National Geographic (NatGeo) site and Wikipedia. I had hoped to see some comments by now, but I hope for the better. This is old news, but there is nothing new currently up, but the world's first giant squid has been captured on video and photographed. It's a great big brute with those eyes. The eyes of a giant squid are as big, or even bigger than a grown man's fist clenched. The giant squid has many tentacles, and two of these are the tentacles that are longer and used to kill things and grab prey of something that catches the interest of the squid. The two tentacles turn flat at the end, and there are suction cups attached so that nothing can escape its grasp once it has caught something. The only animal that can oppose and PREY on the giant squid is the sperm whale. If you aren't familiar with that name, think Moby Dick. He was a sperm whale. The sperm whale is one of the toothed whales and is commonly called the cachalot. The sperm whale has a large upper mouth and a thin jaw under. They produce a waxy kind of discharge which comes from the head. It is black in color and called Spermaceti. It was used for watch oil and car fuel and many other commercial products. As you can imagine, people started making businesses with Spermaceti, and so increased the number of sperm whales killed. Nowadays the sperm whale is a protected species, but the status of the species is at "vulnerable." There have been many findings of sperm whales with sucker scars on their skin. This proves that the sperm whale has fights with the infamous giant squid.
Every day will be dedicated to a new animal, complete with pictures, maybe a video and info on the species. Hope you enjoy!
Today's Day: Giant Squid
Every day will be dedicated to a new animal, complete with pictures, maybe a video and info on the species. Hope you enjoy!
Today's Day: Giant Squid
Whoops...
I'm losing it. Here's the link!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070424-rhino-video.html
Hope you enjoy it!
-Zoophilos
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070424-rhino-video.html
Hope you enjoy it!
-Zoophilos
About the Rare Rhino...
A group of scientists recently caught a rare rhino on film. Here's the link. The video isn't much, but it'll sate your appetite for the sight of the rhino. This type of rhino, the Sumatran Rhinoceros, hasn't been seen in over forty years. That's a long time, and as you can expect, the scientists expected the species to be extinct. Boy, what a surprise they got!
Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070424-rhino-video.html
Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070424-rhino-video.html
A Warm Welcome
I just opened a new blog. My last one wasn't very successful, so I decided to start fresh. This blog will be dedicated to animals and you can come here and post questions as comments. I'm here to answer, if it's in my reach, that is. Pictures and all that stuff for animal lovers, right here! My blog's name is Zoophilos, which means "animal friend". I hope that this will be a bigger hit than last time. I'm determined to get some readers this time. Please feel free to post questions and comments about my blog. But if you are rude and inconsiderate, I'm going to wipe out your comment and I will not answer your questions again. If you state your concerns in a good way, I'll read them and try to adjust as well as I can. Hope that you enjoy this!
-Zoophilos :)
-Zoophilos :)
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