- Joined
- Nov 20, 2002
- Messages
- 1,073
Hi Steve et al --
Yesterday, on ANIMAL PLANET, there was an episode of "Ultimate Animals" which dealt with the highest-flying and deepest-diving creatures on earth.
This show included some footage featuring the naturalist host diving in the Sea of Cortez, to "rendezvous" with a school of Dosidicus gigas that were ascending to feed at night. The Humboldts appeared to attack the naturalist, who was visibly shaken, until he realized that they were just curious about his lighting equipment -- at which point he seemed more awed than afraid.
Something about the encounter puzzled me, though. As the giant Humboldts darted around "inspecting" the host's underwater torches, there were odd buzzing and screeching sounds going on behind his narration. These sounds did not appear to be coming from either his breathing apparatus or the film's music track. They brought to mind last year's news articles about the mass stranding of smaller Humboldts along the American West Coast. in which the observers described the dying cephs emitting odd, squeaking noises.
Is it possible, then, that Dosidicus are capable of "vocalizations" of some sort? Obviously they do not have vocal cords, but do they possess other organs which emit sound? If so, is this a means of communication, or simply a by-product of their locomotion (e.g., the passage of water under the mantle or through the funnel)? And how would this explain the sounds emitted by the beached individuals dying on the shore?
Please forgive me if any of this sounds naive, especially since B-movies so often attribute vocalization to giant cephs in order to (ostensibly) make them appear scarier. (One of the more amusing of this genre is OCTOPUS 2.)
Still very curious,
Tani
Yesterday, on ANIMAL PLANET, there was an episode of "Ultimate Animals" which dealt with the highest-flying and deepest-diving creatures on earth.
This show included some footage featuring the naturalist host diving in the Sea of Cortez, to "rendezvous" with a school of Dosidicus gigas that were ascending to feed at night. The Humboldts appeared to attack the naturalist, who was visibly shaken, until he realized that they were just curious about his lighting equipment -- at which point he seemed more awed than afraid.
Something about the encounter puzzled me, though. As the giant Humboldts darted around "inspecting" the host's underwater torches, there were odd buzzing and screeching sounds going on behind his narration. These sounds did not appear to be coming from either his breathing apparatus or the film's music track. They brought to mind last year's news articles about the mass stranding of smaller Humboldts along the American West Coast. in which the observers described the dying cephs emitting odd, squeaking noises.
Is it possible, then, that Dosidicus are capable of "vocalizations" of some sort? Obviously they do not have vocal cords, but do they possess other organs which emit sound? If so, is this a means of communication, or simply a by-product of their locomotion (e.g., the passage of water under the mantle or through the funnel)? And how would this explain the sounds emitted by the beached individuals dying on the shore?
Please forgive me if any of this sounds naive, especially since B-movies so often attribute vocalization to giant cephs in order to (ostensibly) make them appear scarier. (One of the more amusing of this genre is OCTOPUS 2.)
Still very curious,
Tani
).
