Animal
Giant squid
The giant squid is a very long squid that lives deep in the dark ocean. It has huge eyes and two extra-long tentacles.
The giant squid is one of the biggest animals without a backbone. Most of its length is two very long, stretchy feeding tentacles. It lives deep in oceans around the world, and it is so hard to find that the first photos of a living one in the wild were taken only in 2004.
Architeuthis dux is one of the largest invertebrates: females reach about 13 meters total length and males about 10, though the mantle is no more than about 2.25 meters. Genetic work suggests a single worldwide species. Its biology is still poorly known, and exaggerated sizes are common in popular accounts.
Photo: Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the giant squid
A big giant squid can be as long as a school bus.
Most of that length is two very long tentacles. It lives far down in the dark sea, where people almost never see it.
The giant squid is one of the largest animals without a backbone. A big female can measure about 13 meters from the tip of her body to the ends of her two long tentacles, about as long as a school bus. But most of that is tentacle: the main body, called the mantle, is only about 2 meters long.
Giant squids live deep in the ocean, where it is cold and dark. They are so hard to find that, for a long time, scientists only studied dead ones that washed ashore or came up in fishing nets.
Architeuthis dux (family Architeuthidae) is one of the largest invertebrates. Te Papa gives total lengths of about 13 meters for females and 10 for males, measured from the caudal fin to the tips of the two feeding tentacles; the mantle is about 2 meters, and the length without tentacles about 5.
Remarkably little is known about its biology, behavior or even taxonomy (Winkelmann et al. 2013). Many species of Architeuthis were once described, but Te Papa and genetic studies now treat them as one species, with differences between specimens caused by changes after death.
Quick facts
- Group
- Invertebrate
- Length
- up to 13 m
- Weight
- from 220 kg
Where it lives
Giant squids live deep down in the ocean.
They live in oceans all around the world, but not near the North and South Poles.
Giant squids live in deep oceans all around the world, except the icy waters of the far north and far south. They have been found near New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Norway, Canada and the United States.
They live in the deep, cold, dark water of the open ocean. The IUCN gives depths of about 200 to 900 meters.
The draft genome paper describes a circumglobal distribution in the deep ocean except the high Arctic and Antarctic (da Fonseca et al. 2020). The IUCN assessment lists Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain and the United States, at depths of 200 to 900 meters; the Australian Museum notes captures by deep-sea trawls from 400 to 800 meters.
Winkelmann and colleagues (2013) analyzed mitochondrial genomes from 43 specimens collected across the range and found no detectable population structure and exceptionally low diversity, consistent with one global species that disperses widely, possibly as drifting larvae and as migrating larger squids.
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Deep water (about 200 to 900 meters) in oceans worldwide, except the high Arctic and Antarctic. Records come mostly from strandings and deep-sea fishing, so the exact range is not well known.
Places: Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31942620/ · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Spain, Canada, United States, South Africa, Fr. Southern Lands and 19 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Giant squids catch fish and other squids to eat.
They grab their food with their two long tentacles.
Giant squids are hunters. They catch fish and other squids, and sometimes even other giant squids. In 2004, a camera deep in the ocean caught a giant squid grabbing bait with its long tentacles, which showed scientists it is a more active hunter than they thought.
Its tentacles end in long clubs covered with suckers. A sharp beak and a rough, toothy tongue are thought to tear the food into small pieces.
Diet data are scarce because few specimens have recognizable prey remains. The Australian Museum reports fin rays of large fish and squid suckers in stomachs. Using DNA from one gut sample, Deagle and colleagues (2005) identified hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) and found Architeuthis DNA in an ingested tentacle, evidence of cannibalism.
Kubodera and Mori (2005) photographed a giant squid attacking bait at 900 meters and concluded it is a much more active predator than previously suspected, striking and tangling prey with its elongated feeding tentacles. Prey is thought to be torn up by the beak and the toothed radula (Australian Museum).
Did you know?
Scientists think there is only one kind of giant squid in the whole world.
Scientists once named many kinds of giant squid. DNA studies now suggest there is just one species living in all the oceans.
Mitogenomes of 43 specimens from across the range showed no population structure and very low diversity (Winkelmann et al. 2013).
Giant eyes and long tentacles
The giant squid has some of the biggest eyes of any animal.
It has eight arms and two extra-long tentacles with suckers.
A giant squid has eight arms and two much longer feeding tentacles. The tentacles make up about two-thirds of its length, and their tips have suckers ringed with tiny teeth.
Its eyes are among the largest in the animal kingdom. Scientists photographed one giant squid eyeball about 27 centimeters across, as wide as a dinner plate. One idea is that huge eyes help the squid spot sperm whales, which hunt it, from far away in the dark.
Two feeding tentacles, each ending in an elongate club with large suckers armed with toothed horny rings, account for about two-thirds of total length (Australian Museum). Because tentacles stretch, mantle length is the standard measure; Te Papa notes no Architeuthis is known with a mantle over 2.25 meters, and standard length very rarely exceeds 5 meters.
Nilsson and colleagues (2012) documented an eyeball of about 27 centimeters with a 9-centimeter pupil and proposed that such eyes are uniquely suited to detecting very large predators: below 600 meters, they predicted, a giant squid could see a sperm whale more than 120 meters away. The fins are small and the muscles appear poorly developed, and buoyancy is believed to be aided by ammonia in the body walls (Australian Museum).
Growing up
Giant squids lay lots and lots of tiny eggs.
The babies are very small. They grow up near the surface of the sea before going down deep.
Scientists know very little about how giant squids grow up. A female makes huge numbers of tiny eggs, each only about a millimeter long. Together, her eggs can weigh more than 5 kilograms.
Young giant squids have been found near the surface of the sea off New Zealand. The babies may drift with ocean currents, which may help explain why giant squids are found all over the world. Giant squids are thought to become adults at about three years old.
Te Papa describes reproduction as poorly known. Maturity is attained at about three years; males are smaller than females. Eggs average 0.5 to 1.4 millimeters long and are produced in masses of more than 5 kilograms, held together by gelatinous material from the nidamental glands. Post-larval juveniles have been found in surface waters off New Zealand.
Males lack a hectocotylus; sperm may be transferred as spermatangia injected into the female, and a female caught off Tasmania in 1996 carried sperm cords embedded in her skin (Australian Museum). Winkelmann and colleagues suggest drifting paralarvae help explain the species' genetic uniformity across oceans.
Finding the giant squid
For a long time, no one had ever seen a living giant squid in the sea.
Then, scientists sent a camera down deep. Click! They took the first photos.
For a long time, scientists could study giant squids only from dead specimens. Then, on September 30, 2004, two scientists, Kubodera and Mori, lowered a camera with bait 900 meters down near the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific. It photographed a living giant squid grabbing the bait. The squid left behind a piece of tentacle, which proved what it was and showed it was more than 8 meters long.
Sperm whales hunt giant squids. Scientists know this because giant squid beaks are often found in the stomachs of sperm whales.
Kubodera and Mori (2005) obtained the first images of a live giant squid in its natural environment, on 30 September 2004 (Scientific American), with a baited camera and depth recorder at 900 meters off the Ogasawara Islands; a severed tentacle confirmed the identification and a size greater than 8 meters. The images showed active predation with the tentacles.
Sperm whales are the known predators: Architeuthis beaks are commonly found in their stomachs (Australian Museum). Te Papa adds that beaks from sperm whale stomachs are no larger than those of trawled New Zealand specimens, so there is no evidence of bigger giant squids than those already known.
Did you know?
The first photos of a live giant squid in the sea were taken in 2004.
The first photos of a living giant squid in the wild were taken in 2004, 900 meters deep near Japan's Ogasawara Islands.
Kubodera and Mori's 2004 images, published in 2005, were the first of a live Architeuthis in its natural environment.
A deep-sea mystery
Giant squids are not known to be in danger.
But they live so deep that scientists still have lots to learn about them.
The IUCN Red List lists the giant squid as Least Concern, but scientists do not know how many there are or whether their numbers are changing. The assessment was done in 2010 and needs updating.
You may read that giant squids grow to 18 meters or weigh a ton. Those stories are wrong. One famous squid found in New Zealand in 1887 was measured at about 17 meters, but its tentacles had stretched like rubber bands. Its body was only 1.8 meters long.
The IUCN assessed Architeuthis dux as Least Concern (assessed 2010, published 2014, flagged as needing an update), with an unknown population trend and no listed threats. Specimens have become more available through deep-sea fishing (Winkelmann et al. 2013).
Size claims need care. Te Papa reports that the largest known specimen, a female stranded at Lyall Bay, Wellington, in 1887, measured 55 feet 2 inches (about 16.8 meters) only because its tentacles had stretched; its mantle was 1.8 meters, and relaxed by modern standards it would be about 32 feet. Of more than 100 specimens examined, none exceeded about 13 meters total or 2.25 meters mantle length, so reported lengths of 60 feet and weights of a ton are incorrect.
IUCN Red List
How is the giant squid doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
Amazing facts
-
A giant squid's eye can be as wide as a dinner plate.
Scientists photographed a giant squid eyeball about 27 centimeters across, with a pupil 9 centimeters wide.
Nilsson et al. (2012) documented a 27-centimeter eyeball with a 9-centimeter pupil and linked giant eyes to spotting sperm whales at depth.
-
The first photos of a live giant squid in the sea were taken in 2004.
The first photos of a living giant squid in the wild were taken in 2004, 900 meters deep near Japan's Ogasawara Islands.
Kubodera and Mori's 2004 images, published in 2005, were the first of a live Architeuthis in its natural environment.
-
Most of a giant squid's length is its two long tentacles.
About two-thirds of a giant squid's length is its two feeding tentacles, which can stretch, so scientists measure the body instead.
Because tentacles are elastic, mantle length rather than total length is the standard measure for cephalopods (Te Papa).
-
Scientists think there is only one kind of giant squid in the whole world.
Scientists once named many kinds of giant squid. DNA studies now suggest there is just one species living in all the oceans.
Mitogenomes of 43 specimens from across the range showed no population structure and very low diversity (Winkelmann et al. 2013).
Words to know
- invertebrate
- an animal without a backbone
- mantle
- the main part of a squid's body
- tentacle
- a long, bendy body part used to grab things
- deep sea
- the dark, cold part of the ocean far below the surface
- specimen
- an animal or part of one collected for scientists to study
- predator
- an animal that hunts and eats other animals
Discovery challenge
-
Which part makes a giant squid so long?
What makes up most of a giant squid's length?
Why is mantle length, not total length, the standard measure for giant squid?
- Its two long, stretchy tentacles
- Its tail fin
- Its huge eyes
Show the answer
Its two long, stretchy tentacles
Its two long tentacles make it so long.
About two-thirds of its length is its two feeding tentacles.
The tentacles are elastic and stretch after death, so total lengths are unreliable; mantle length is used instead.
-
Which big animal hunts giant squids?
Which animal is a known predator of the giant squid?
What evidence shows that sperm whales eat giant squid?
- Penguins
- Sperm whales
- Sea turtles
Show the answer
Sperm whales
Sperm whales hunt giant squids.
Sperm whales eat giant squids; squid beaks are found in their stomachs.
Architeuthis beaks are commonly found in the stomachs of stranded sperm whales.
-
Where does the giant squid live?
Where do giant squids live?
Which describes the giant squid's distribution?
- In rivers and lakes
- In shallow rock pools
- Deep in oceans around the world
Show the answer
Deep in oceans around the world
Deep down in the ocean, all around the world.
In deep, dark water in oceans worldwide, but not near the poles.
Circumglobal in the deep ocean, except the high Arctic and Antarctic, at about 200 to 900 meters.
-
When did people first take photos of a live giant squid in the sea?
When were the first photos of a living giant squid in the wild taken?
When and where were the first images of a live Architeuthis in its natural habitat obtained?
- In 2004
- In 1887
- They never have
Show the answer
In 2004
In 2004, with a camera deep in the sea.
In 2004, 900 meters deep near Japan's Ogasawara Islands.
In 2004, at 900 meters off the Ogasawara Islands, North Pacific (Kubodera and Mori 2005).
Places where you might see it
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe the giant squid's body, including arms, tentacles, mantle and eyes.
- Explain why scientists measure mantle length instead of total length.
- Describe how scientists study an animal that is rarely seen alive.
- Recognize that popular size claims can be exaggerated and check them against careful measurements.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might an animal living in the dark need such big eyes?
- How could scientists learn about an animal they almost never see alive?
- Why do you think stories about giant squids often make them sound bigger than they are?
Try at home or in class
- Measure 13 meters in a hallway or playground with a tape measure, then mark 2 meters at one end to see how small the body is compared with the tentacles.
- Stretch a rubber band next to a ruler to see how a stretchy tentacle could make a measurement longer than the real animal.
Key vocabulary: invertebrate, mantle, tentacle, deep sea, specimen, predator
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Architeuthis dux (Allcock & Barratt 2014) , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Giant squid Architeuthis dux , Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Collections Online
- Giant Squid, Architeuthis dux , Australian Museum
- First-ever observations of a live giant squid in the wild (Kubodera and Mori 2005, Proceedings of the Royal Society B 272: 2583–2586), abstract , PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
- Mitochondrial genome diversity and population structure of the giant squid Architeuthis (Winkelmann et al. 2013), abstract , PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
- A unique advantage for giant eyes in giant squid (Nilsson et al. 2012, Current Biology 22: 683–688), abstract , PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
- A draft genome sequence of the elusive giant squid, Architeuthis dux (da Fonseca et al. 2020, GigaScience), abstract , PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
- Genetic screening for prey in the gut contents from a giant squid (Deagle et al. 2005), abstract , PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
- Live Giant Squid Photographed for First Time (2005) , Scientific American
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.