Giant Cuttlefish Facts: the LARGEST Cuttlefish 🐙 Animal Fact Files

Today on Animal Fact Files, we're discussing giant cuttlefish. Its common name is appropriate because of all the known cuttlefish that live around the world, the giant cuttlefish is the largest. Its mantle alone reaches about the same length as the average house cat, but when the tentacles are included, these massive cephalopods top the charts at over 3 feet, 91 centimeters, long. What's more, giant cuttlefish can easily weigh over 20 pounds, 9 kilograms at full size, so they've earned their humongous name. Apart from their gargantuan size, like other cuttlefish, giant cuttlefish have the capacity to change color in an instant due to layers of chromatophores present in their skin. They can even change the texture of their skin to appear more like algae or rocks. Giant cuttlefish have three skin flaps above their eyes, and they display eight arms and two longer tentacles that can be retracted. These are used for eating. The giant cuttlefish is a voracious predator, albeit somewhat lazy. These cephalopods spend more than 90% of their days resting, which is also a means of staying out of sight of predators. When a giant cuttlefish does drag itself out of bed, usually sometimes during the day, it hunts down fish and crustaceans, which are ensnared in their arms and tentacles. If it's lucky, the cuttlefish will make it back to a rocky crevice to sleep away the rest of the day. But predators lurk in the seagrass beds and rocky reefs where these invertebrates reside, and giant cuttlefish are prey to dolphins, fur seals, marine birds such as albatrosses, and large carnivorous fish. Most of the time, they manipulate their colors to blend in with the surroundings and keep them hidden. But this strategy falls flat when trying to attract a mate. Giant cuttlefish put on flashy, brilliant displays during the breeding season, which occurs during the colder months of the year. They focus all of their energy on reproduction, not even eating during this busy time. Now, there's a little bit of a controversy over the breeding populations of giant cuttlefish. Throughout most of their range, they form pairs or small groups, but in one location, Spencer Gulf, they gather in thousands to mate en masse. There's unpublished research suggesting this population is genetically distinct from the others and should be considered a separate species. But as of this recording, they're still classified as the same species. Male cuttlefish insert sperm into a female's mantle, and she'll store it inside her until she lays her eggs. These are placed in protected places, such as rocky outcrops, and each egg is individually fertilized as she produces them. They take three to five months to hatch, at which point their parents will be long gone. As is the case with other cephalopods, giant cuttlefish are semelparous and die after reproducing. Some individuals reach reproductive maturity in their first year, while others take two years to reach this point, so their lifespan is determined by when they copulate. This puts them at risk of overexploitation, especially in the case of the large breeding colony, which has seen more than 90% population declines since it was first actively observed and documented in the 1990s. As of today, the giant cuttlefish is listed as near-threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The giant cuttlefish is also known as the giant Australian cuttlefish because that's where it's found. Spanning from the west to the east coast, these invertebrates live in coastal regions no more than about 330 feet, 100 meters, deep. These awesome animal facts are supported by Dad, SpikesBeagle93, and the rest of our Patreon family. Join the AFF Patreon to learn even more. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thanks for watching Animal Fact Files.