Please, before you go to sleep tonight, think of ways you can reach out and help all the creatures out there—–humans as well.
Education, preservation, conservation are the keys to protect all of our friends, including us, for future generations.
If you see any of these friends on your travels give them a hug. Well, perhaps not all of them…
Giant isopods live between 550 to 7020 feet deep (and potentially deeper), and prefer a mud or clay floor, which they burrow into for shelter. “Bathynomus giganteus is more of a coldwater species,” says Dee Ann Auten, an Aquarist II at the Aquarium of the Pacific, which has four giant isopods in its Wonders of the Deep gallery. “They live in the Pacific Ocean, off Japan and in the South China Sea.”
Typically, giant isopods are between 7.5 and 14.2 inches in length, but they can get much bigger: One specimen pulled up with an ROV in 2010 was 2.5 feet long. Scientists aren’t quite sure why these isopods get so enormous, but believe that their huge size might be an adaptation that helps them survive the extreme pressure of the deep ocean.
Giant isopods have four sets of jaws—which are adapted to cut and tear at prey—and they get a workout when the animals are hungry. “When they’re hungry and they’re eating, definitely have a lot of food around them, because they’ll keep eating,” Auten says. “They’ll eat a lot at one time and then they can go for a long time without eating. There’s a comic of one giant isopod eating a dead whale, and it eats the whole thing except for the bones. It’s sitting on its back like ‘ughh I’m full now.’ That’s totally true! If they eat, they eat a lot.” In fact, they eat so much that they compromise their ability to move.
So, if you run into one of these critters be kind to them.
To support our Animal Protection projects, or to donate towards our endangered species project see these links: Universal Giving or PayPal Giving Fund
*Photo: National Geographic, Damien du Toit, quotes from Erin McCarthy – Mental Floss
We All Deserve Better 