The deep ocean is an amazing unknown world and a lot of fascinating creatures living there. One of these creatures was named after a fictional folklore blood-sucking character that you wouldn’t want to come across anytime soon. Why is this particular type of squid referred to as a vampiric creature? Let’s take a closer look at some of the most interesting facts about the Vampire Squid so you can learn everything about this intriguing animal.
Even though they are capable of swimming at speeds of 2 body lengths per second and sprint at speeds of up to 5 body lengths per second, they mostly just floating around at the bottom of the ocean.
Many octopuses feature an ink sack which they use whenever they are startled. This is a defense mechanism that works quite well at much lower depths of the ocean. At the bottom of the ocean, in a place where it’s pretty much pitch-dark, this is useless.
Vampire squids don’t possess such an ink sack. whenever they feel threatened, they simply start waving their 8 arms around and wrap them around their own body. This pretty much turns these creatures inside-out, a pretty remarkable sight.
These flashes can range from just a couple of seconds to several minutes. The intensity of these lights can also be adjusted by these animals, so they can pretty much dim the light so to speak.
The reproduction cycle of these animals is believed to be rather slow. The male injects a packet of sperm into the female during mating and she ends up spawning the eggs in several events.
Regardless, some unlucky individuals have been found in the stomach of deepsea predators such as giant grenadiers, and even in those of whales and sea lions.
They can use these bioluminescent organs to produce flashes to disorientate their potential victims, mainly using the tip of their 8 arms.
The spawning events take quite some time because of the low metabolic rate of these animals and the fact that it takes a lot of energy to spawn.
The huge benefit of living in the extreme depths of the ocean is that the lack of oxygen also means there’s a lack of apex predators.
The vampire squid isn’t the only deep-ocean creature that can produce light. This animal is, however, almost entirely covered in photophores, a type of light-producing organ they use to lure in prey.
