Giant Squid VS Sperm Whale! The Science and Art of a Deep Sea fight from Moby Dick to Beyond Blue
In the depths of the ocean, shrouded in mystery, perhaps the largest vertebrate predator ever meets up with one of the largest invertebrate predators. What happens when whale and squid collide in near darkness has been something humans have endlessly speculated on for centuries, as at least since people took interest in sperm whales and began hunting them, large circular scars have been noted on the whale's skin which could be matched to mysterious carcasses of gigantic squid that very rarely washed ashore. With the knowledge that giant squid and sperm whales interact violently deep below the surface of the ocean humans have tried to fill in the gaps, and because the meeting of two such large and powerful creatures captures the imagination, the scene of whale meeting squid has been depicted hundreds of times during nearly two centuries of literature (Moby Dick), drawings, film, and video games (Endless Ocean: Blue World, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Beyond Blue). What I hope to do in this video is explore the history of how this battle beneath the sea has been depicted as our understanding of these two animals and their ecological interaction has evolved, as this is a very unique case study showing how knowledge changes over time and with it how we depict nature in media by discussing the Science and how the art changes to reflect the new knowledge.
Sources
1. Melville, H. (1851). Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Harper & Brothers.
2. O'Shea, S. & K. Bolstad (2008). "Giant squid and colossal squid fact sheet". The Octopus News Magazine Online.
3. Disney. (1954). 20,000 Leagues under the sea.
4. Shirihai, H. & Jarrett, B. (2006). Whales, Dolphins, and Other Marine Mammals of the World. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. pp. 21–24. ISBN 978-0-691-12757-6.
5. Norris, K. S., & Mohl, B. (1983). Can Odontocetes debilitate prey with sound? The American Naturalist, 122(1), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.1086/284120
6. Fais, A., Johnson, M., Wilson, M., Aguilar Soto, N., & Madsen, P. T. (2016). Sperm whale predator-prey interactions involve chasing and buzzing, but no acoustic stunning. Scientific Reports, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep28562
7. Smith S. & Whitehead, H. (2000). "The Diet of Galapagos sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus as indicated by faecal sample analysis". Marine Mammal Science. 16 (2): 315–325. doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2000.tb00927.x.
8. Clarke, M.R. (1980). "Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale biology". Discovery Reports. 37: 1–324.
9. Aguilar de Soto, N.; Johnson, M. P.; Madsen, P. T.; Díaz, F.; Domínguez, I.; Brito, A.; Tyack, P. (2008). "Cheetahs of the deep sea: Deep foraging sprints in short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife (Canary Islands)" (PDF). Journal of Animal Ecology. 77 (5): 936–947. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01393.x. PMID 18444999.
0:00 Introduction
1:13 Whalers and Moby Dick
2:10 Giant Squid Biology
3:43 Are Sperm Whales Active or Passive Predators?
4:14 Endless Ocean, Assassin's Creed, and an Epic Conflict in the Abyss
5:55 The Matchup
6:51 Acoustic Prey Debilitation Hypothesis
7:58 Beyond Blue and How Sperm Whales Actually Hunt
9:52 Pilot Whale VS Giant Squid
11:42 Outro
I try to achieve the most well researched content I can, that said it is impossible to create content that is exhaustive on a given topic and therefore I implore you to investigate a given topic further.
Welcome to Ecotasia! On this channel you can find wildlife footage and short documentaries on the natural world. I am an early career biologist who was inspired by the likes of the BBC Natural History unit, PBS, and Animal Planet as a child and then more recently by various nature YouTube channels to share my love for animals and nature. My goal is to document and highlight the interesting ecology and behavior of organisms I encounter, as well as cover and elucidate conservation and biological topics. Please Subscribe so you can join me to marvel and to learn twice a month.
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