美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Googly-Eyed' Stubby Squid Captures Internet's Attention

'Googly-Eyed' Stubby Squid Captures Internet's Attention

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The cutest little thing was found on the ocean floor this week - a little googly-eyed purple squid off the coast of California. It looks like a close friend of Nemo. I'm joined now by Samantha Wishnak, who's a science fellow on board the Nautilus ship that captured the endearing cephalopod on video. Thanks so much for being with us.

SAMANTHA WISHNAK: Thanks for having us.

SIMON: He's just adorable. Is it a he, a she? What is it?

WISHNAK: We're not quite sure on the he or she of this squid. But we do know it is a stubby squid, or a North Pacific Bobtail Squid, scientific name Rossia pacifica. This animal looks like a cross between an octopus 1 and squid but tends to be more related to the cuttlefish 2. As you can tell, it spends a lot of life on the sea floor. We encountered it sort of perched on the sediment 3 with that now-famous googly-eyed expression.

SIMON: All purple and just has the most adorable little endearing eyes.

WISHNAK: Yes. We probably encountered this squid at a time it wasn't expecting to see a 5,500-pound underwater robot moving towards it.

SIMON: So he was just surprised?

WISHNAK: Right. Scuba 4 divers 5 actually encounter these squid at scuba diving depths, and they say that when, you know, their dive lights turn on them they get this similar kind of deer-in-the-headlights look.

SIMON: Yeah.

WISHNAK: They're actually nocturnal hunters, so they spend a lot of their day actually burrowed 6 in the sea floor with just their eyes poking 7 out. And then when they feel comfortable, when it's time to hunt, they'll come out and actually start creeping along, looking for their next meal. So I think we encountered a squid on the hunt that wasn't expecting to see us. But yes, this one is bright purple, which was pretty exciting for us to see. Definitely stood out against the mud of the canyon 8 we were in.

SIMON: And he or she eats what?

WISHNAK: So these are squid that kind of hang out around the sea floor. They spend their day burrowed in the settlement with just their eyes poking out, so that's kind of their best form of camouflage 9. But they also have the ability to activate 10 a little sticky mucus jacket. And once they've activated 11 that little jacket, sediment - so pebbles 12, sand, whatever they're sort of burrowing 13 in - will stick to that jacket and give it a nice extra layer of camouflage. So they lie in wait - they're ambush 14 predators 15 - and as soon as a small fish or a shrimp 16 crawls by it, it'll actually sort of turn off that mucus jacket and slide out of the sediment to lunge for their next meal.

SIMON: Cute, but don't underestimate them.

WISHNAK: Exactly. Very cute, but definitely ambush predators you don't want to encounter if you're a shrimp.

SIMON: You're now docked in San Francisco, and I think that's pretty close to Pixar. I mean, any agents from that studio on board?

WISHNAK: (Laughter) Not that I know of. Maybe we have some sleeper 17 agents. But one of the most interesting things about all the media requests we've received is that the media requests typically start out with, are you sure this is real? Is this a real animal? How do we know it's real? So I think it definitely captured the imagination of both our researchers on board and our hundreds of viewers who were watching as we discovered this guy.

SIMON: Samantha Wishnak, who's a science fellow aboard the Nautilus that discovered the squid. By the way, you can see cute squid pics on our website, npr.org. Thanks very much for being with us.

WISHNAK: Thanks, Scott.