Nutrition
As the sun sets upon the warm waters of the eastern Pacific
, the Humboldt squid rises from the deep in order to hunt Lanternfish (family: Myctophidae) and other unknowing marine life
with serrated hooks and razor-sharp beaks. This “red devil” eats a
wide variety of invertebrates, fish, and is a known cannibal in the
underwater world.
Dosidicus gigas is a very active predator when hunting its prey. Its diet consists of a huge variety of crustaceans, invertebrates, cephalopods, other squid, and fish. They require an enormous amount of food to maintain their high metabolic and growth rate (Gilly et al. 2007). They use their long tentacles and beak to eat nearly any animal able to be taken down. It is very much an opportunistic hunter, eating a wide variety of marine wildlife. Here is a short video of a Humboldt squid eating a very unlucky ocean dweller.
Specifically in a study done in the central Gulf of
California, the stomach contents of 533 jumbo squid ranging between
14.5 and 87.5 cm dorsal mantle length were surveyed on a month to
month basis from November 1995 to April 1997. In this study their
diet was composed of mainly Benthosema panamense, an abundant
nyctoepipelagic myctophid that tends to aggregate together. Other
marine life found were Triphoturus mexicanus, pelagic red crab,
micronektonic squid, and fish such as northern anchovy and Pacific
sardine. Differences in size and sex between Humboldt squid had
little impact on prey consumption. The largest differences in diet
came with spatial variation and changes in time (Markaida et al.
2003).
The Jumbo squid does have the ability to overpower and feed upon human divers, however unless they get stressed or threatened this scenario is very unlikely. Another interesting aspect is that the Jumbo squid have been shown to have cannibalistic tendencies. Studies have suggested that cannibalism makes up to 30% of their diet by weight (Nigmatullin et al. 2001). However, this large percentage is only found during times of scarce common prey. Here is a short video of one squid presenting its canabalistic attributes by attempting to take down another squid in a time where there is little food.