What the Giant Squid Hunting Footage Revealed

A giant squid did not simply drift into view and disappear. In footage recorded in 2019, a juvenile Architeuthis dux approached a deep-sea camera platform, followed it for roughly six minutes, and then moved in to attack the flashing lure attached to it.

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That sequence is important because it suggests the squid was actively tracking a visual target. It supports the idea that giant squid can hunt by visually stalking potential prey, rather than relying only on a sudden ambush. The evidence is still limited to rare, opportunistic encounters—but it is among the clearest observations yet of how a living giant squid behaves in its natural habitat.

What the video actually shows

The animal in the footage was identified as the giant squid, Architeuthis dux. The encounter took place in the Wider Caribbean region at roughly 557 to 950 meters below the surface, as part of observations reported in a 2021 paper by Nathan J. Robinson, Sönke Johnsen, Annabelle Brooks, Lee Frey, and Heather Judkins.

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The 2019 squid was estimated to have a mantle length of about 1.7 meters. That measurement describes the muscular body behind the head and does not include the arms or long feeding tentacles. It should not automatically be converted into a claimed total length, because squid-size estimates become misleading when mantle, arms, and tentacles are mixed together.

Rather than striking immediately, the squid approached and tracked the observation platform for approximately six minutes. The researchers interpreted this extended following behavior as consistent with visual hunting and active stalking. The squid then attacked or moved toward the lure, but the encounter did not establish that it successfully captured and consumed prey.

How giant squid hunt, according to this observation

The footage cannot reveal every part of a giant squid’s hunting strategy. It is one encounter, not a large behavioral study. But it does provide a useful sequence:

1. Detection: The squid noticed a visual signal in the otherwise dark water.
2. Approach: It moved toward the signal rather than passing by at random.
3. Tracking: It followed the platform for around six minutes.
4. Attack attempt: It moved in toward the flashing lure before the interaction ended.

This is why scientists described the behavior as evidence consistent with visual stalking. The squid appeared to keep a target under observation and adjust its position before attempting to attack. That is different from proving that all giant squid hunts involve a six-minute pursuit, or that every attack begins with the same kind of lure.

The most accurate conclusion is narrower: this encounter shows that a giant squid can respond to a visual target, follow it for an extended period, and make an attack approach in the deep ocean.

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The camera did not use ordinary bait

Scientists filmed the squid with a free-floating, relatively unobtrusive camera platform called Medusa. The system was designed for animals that may avoid the bright lights, engine noise, vibration, and thruster wash associated with a conventional remotely operated vehicle.

Medusa combined:

• a low-light camera,
• red illumination, and
• a flashing optical lure called the E-Jelly.

The E-Jelly imitated the flashing alarm display of the deep-sea jellyfish Atolla wyvillei. In the deep ocean, that kind of flashing signal can indicate that a jellyfish is being attacked or distressed, potentially attracting a larger predator to the scene.

So the E-Jelly was not simply a fake jellyfish intended to serve as a meal. It was better understood as an optical attractant: a conspicuous visual signal designed to bring a curious or hunting animal close enough for the camera to observe.

The lure also demonstrated its own limitation. NOAA’s educational description of the encounter says that the giant squid approached the E-Jelly, recognized that it was not food, and retreated. Attraction brought the animal into view, but it did not guarantee that the squid would accept the device as prey.

Why passive observation matters in the deep sea

Giant squid are difficult to study alive. Their habitat is dark, cold, remote, and under immense pressure. For decades, much of what scientists knew came from stranded animals, remains found in the stomachs of predators, specimens recovered by trawlers, and damaged bodies brought to the surface.

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Active vehicles can be invaluable, but they can also change the behavior scientists are trying to observe. Bright lights may be startling. Propellers and thrusters create noise and water movement. A large vehicle approaching an animal can make a cautious squid flee before its behavior is recorded.

Medusa addressed some of those problems by remaining quiet and using low-light imaging. Red illumination was used because it can reduce disturbance compared with bright white light in this setting, while the optical lure supplied a controlled visual point of interest. The result was a view of an animal behaving in the open ocean instead of one reacting to a conspicuous submersible.

The broader lesson extends beyond giant squid. Passive or minimally intrusive camera platforms may reveal behaviors that active vehicles routinely miss, especially among large, wary animals that rarely approach human equipment.

Was this the first giant squid ever filmed alive?

No. The 2019 event was described as only the second time a live giant squid had been filmed at that point in the history of the field. Its significance was not that it was the first image of a living giant squid, but that it captured an unusually informative interaction in the animal’s natural environment.

Earlier footage and sightings established that giant squid could be observed alive. This encounter added behavioral detail: approach, prolonged tracking, and an attack response to a visual signal.

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Giant squid versus colossal squid: they are not the same animal

“Giant squid” and “colossal squid” are often treated as interchangeable labels, but they refer to different species.

That separate colossal-squid story was announced by the University of Essex on April 16, 2025. The juvenile was approximately 30 centimeters long and was filmed at about 600 meters. It was the first confirmed footage of a juvenile colossal squid in its natural environment—but it was not the giant squid hunting footage described in this article.

What the footage proves—and what it does not

It supports these conclusions

• Giant squid can detect and respond to a visual signal in the deep ocean.
• The observed squid followed the camera platform for roughly six minutes before its attack approach.
• The behavior is consistent with active visual stalking, not merely a random pass or an instantaneous ambush.
• Low-light, passive camera systems can record behavior that might be disrupted by a conventional vehicle.

It does not establish these claims

• That every giant squid hunts by following targets for six minutes.
• That the E-Jelly was accepted as a real prey animal.
• That the squid successfully fed during the encounter.
• That the observed sequence represents the typical behavior of the entire species.
• That the approximately 1.7-meter mantle measurement was the squid’s total length.

Those distinctions matter because the study reported rare encounters rather than repeated, controlled experiments. The footage is strong evidence of what one giant squid did in one situation. It is not a complete behavioral profile.

Why this remains an important discovery

The value of the footage lies in its combination of rarity and behavioral context. A photograph of a giant squid can confirm that the animal is present. A video of one drifting past can show its appearance and movement. This recording went further by showing the animal responding to a target over time.

It also demonstrates how the technology used to observe deep-sea wildlife can shape what scientists learn. A bright, actively piloted vehicle might have produced a dramatic close-up but caused the squid to flee. The quieter Medusa platform instead allowed researchers to watch the approach unfold.

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For an animal known mainly from fragments, carcasses, and stories, six minutes of tracking behavior is a major addition to the scientific record. It makes the giant squid seem less like a mysterious object that occasionally appears and more like an active predator making decisions in a difficult environment.

Further reading

For historical and biological background, The Search for the Giant Squid by Richard Ellis is a relevant starting point. Penguin Random House lists a 336-page paperback edition published October 1, 1999, ISBN 9780140286762. The book predates the major live-footage breakthroughs of 2012 and 2019, so it should be read as historical context rather than as a current account of the latest observations.

The underlying scientific study is Nathan J. Robinson and colleagues’ “Studying the swift, smart, and shy: Unobtrusive camera-platforms for observing large deep-sea squid,” published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, volume 172, article 103538, in 2021.