Proof sperm whales eat giant squid

[Arella]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/photogalleries/giant-squid-sperm-whale-pictures/

Confirmation that sperm whale eat giant squid :)

[deepblue]

That's a great photo set. Sperm whales are absolutely incredible. The depths they can dive to, their amazing heads, everything. Thanks for posting that! :)

I wonder how they do against colossal squid, which are bigger than giant squids. Since sperm whales have gotten smaller the past hundred years thanks to whaling taking the biggest out of the gene pool, I wonder if any modern day sperm whale could handle a colossal squid. I'm sure the largest must be, or we'd see more colossals just by virtue of increased population. Even if they were not very deep and actually dying, we'd see more.

[AptaMer]

I wonder if any modern day sperm whale could handle a colossal squid.

Colossal squid are about twice the size of the giant squid, but if you look at the photo in the article, that still wouldn't be very big compared to a sperm whale. Adult sperm whales are bigger than a bus, even nowadays!

On the Wikipedia page it quotes a paper that says colossal squid are a major prey of sperm whales in the Antarctic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid

[deepblue]

Colossal squid are about twice the size of the giant squid, but if you look at the photo in the article, that still wouldn't be very big compared to a sperm whale. Adult sperm whales are bigger than a bus, even nowadays!

On the Wikipedia page it quotes a paper that says colossal squid are a major prey of sperm whales in the Antarctic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid

Oh, I know sperm whales are still huge, and I've seen how big colossal squid are (have you seen the documentary by Discovery?). I just imagine only the largest whales would dare tackle it. Then again, sperm whales aren't exactly timid. I can't wait for technology to be able to get better deep sea footage... sure, it's amazing what we can see, but think of what we aren't.

[Echidna]

I'll throw in some mermyth info here:

merrows, the merpeople who live out in the open sea, fear and hate sperm whales (and maybe orcas) since those prey on them.
This is why the merrows (at least the more human-like, pretty females) would often swim up to the whalers and show them where to find the pods, and probably why they sometimes saved sailors from drowning.

^^now doesn't this really sound like the aquatic ape theory has a point.