We have men at work on the squid tank again today. I caught up with Don, one of our contractors, just before he was heading off to lunch after a hard morning’s work on the tank. He’s putting in a second pump and filter system into one end of the squidRead more
More news from the squid tank. This morning I caught up with Robert Clendon the conservator who is looking after the work on the squid. Over the past few weeks we’ve been a bit concerned about the hooks on the tentacles and the arms. It looked as though the hooks could beRead more
On Tuesday we started remedial work on the colossal squid and her tank. Things are going very well and to schedule. Yesterday we put up the barriers around the tank and lifted up the huge lid, using a forklift. We then drained most of the liquid out of the tank.Read more
I have to admit – there’s something special about about getting up at an ungodly hour to do something or see something out of the ordinary. Driving this morning through a beautifully still Wellington morning with no traffic is something out of the ordinary in itself 🙂 So it wasRead more
Many people have asked us why the colossal squid specimen was so much smaller than anticipated when we thawed it. Initial reports suggested that the specimen was considerably larger than the final measurement of 4.2 metres in total length. We suspected that the specimen had shrunk (rather than the size beingRead more
With less than a month to go until our squid meets her adoring fans, there is still much to be done behind the scenes, not least of which is trying to figure out the best way of getting a 2.5 tonne display tank – squid included – from its storageRead more
Work is underway preparing the mounting system for the colossal squid in its display tank. Unless the squid is supported by acrylic mounts it will remain a collapsed heap on the bottom of the tank – not very appealling! To display it in as realistic pose as possible a seriesRead more
It’s a lovely spring Friday morning in Wellington. What else would we (Pamela, Chris and Judy – our brave and newest squid team member) be doing other than dissecting a couple of nice fresh squid from the local wholesale fish supplier? It’s all in the interest of bringing you a bigger andRead more
Bioluminescence (light produced by living animals or plants) is common among squid – it is estimated that two-thirds of all squid genera contain bioluminescent (light producing) species. Light production using photophores (special light producing structures) can be found nearly anywhere on the body of some squid species: the most common ones are:Read more
The squid has been stitched as much as we can – Steve describes it as trying to sew two blocks of butter together. As we re-fill the tank with the glycol mixture we are placing bags filled with water to spread the mantle out and give it some support. BeingRead more
Specimens in museum collections are usually preserved in a 70 per cent aqueous solution of ethyl alcohol or in a 2-4 per cent solution of formaldehyde (5-10 per cent formalin). The great disadvantages of ethyl alcohol are that it is flammable, it volatilizes very readily, it tends to produce precipitatesRead more
Other squid families have hooks on the arms, or the tentacles, or both, but the colossal squid is the only hooked squid in its family (the Cranchiidae, about 20 species). It possesses hooks on each of the eight arms, and also on the club ends of the two long tentacles,Read more
We just found the ovaries – the specimen is a girl! Here’s an image from the microscope video (x150) – showing a bunch of eggs….the ovaries are full of several thousands of eggs!Read more
My name is Prof. Eric Warrant from the University of Lund in Sweden (blonde hair, blue glasses), and I am here together with Prof. Dan Nilsson (also from Lund) to study the gigantic eyes of the colossal squid. These are truly amazing eyes – in the collapsed state we seeRead more
As the specimen is still folded in a block we are using an underwater camera to determine how the specimen is positioned. The camera revealed the eye! The eye is HUGE! The lens alone is 50 mm across, but we won’t be able to get an exact measurement untilRead more
