Shadowing Practice: Nothing About Colossal Squids Is Normal... Here's Why - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Every animal has a size limit.
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It's why sharks can't get bigger than the megalodon, whales can't get bigger than blue whales, and squids can't get bigger than the giant squid.
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Or so we thought.
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This is the colossal squid, and it isn't just slightly bigger than a giant squid, they're over double the weight.
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And while their names might sound really similar, they aren't the same species, they aren't the same genus, and they aren't even the same family.
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By all accounts, this animal shouldn't be able to exist.
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single largest eyes out of any animal in the entire world, the size of soccer balls, and yet they spend their life at the bottom of the ocean where light can't even reach.
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Their mass is over a thousand pounds, which should make their bodies collapse from their own weight, and yet they're still mobile and active predators.
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And not only do these squids live in the deepest part of the entire ocean,
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way deeper than any giant squid could ever So why,
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or how, does this creature exist?
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And what kind of an environment requires a creature to be this large and this grotesque?
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And why are they nothing like what giant squids ended up as?
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Well, to understand why the colossal squid is even able to exist, let's clarify one thing first.
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Most of what we know about these creatures is very limited, because they're nearly impossible to find.
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Not because they're small, they're quite the opposite.
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Some would say colossal, even.
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But we can't find them because they live in the worst place in the entire world to find anything.
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This right here that I'm showing you is the only footage we have of a colossal squid in the wild.
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That's it.
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I just showed you all the footage we have and this is just a juvenile.
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We've never captured footage of an adult in their habitat.
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They live in the Southern Ocean, surrounding Antarctica, which is already making things difficult, but they also live thousands of meters deep.
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But not just deep, they are living in the deepest deep.
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Giant squids do live in the deep sea, but they still have a ceiling.
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They usually stay within the midnight zone, roughly 3 ,000 feet down,
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where the water is cold but the environment is still somewhat thousands of meters deeper than that,
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pushing down into the abyssal zone, reaching depths of 13 ,000 feet or more.
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And in this part of the Antarctic, the water is even more stagnant, even more hostile, and even closer to freezing.
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By the time you reach these depths, most of the ocean's life has already given up.
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There's no prey to chase, no currents to help you move, and the pressure is pushing against every square inch of your body with the weight of a skyscraper.
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invertebrate.
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It didn't put this thousand pound tank into the productive shallow waters where food is everywhere.
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It stuck them in the most empty, crushing void on the planet.
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So, we've recorded only a baby one.
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How do we even know these guys actually exist?
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Well, it's not just a rumor made up by sailors. For decades, the only reason we knew these monsters were real was by looking at the evidence left behind by the things
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that eat them.
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Sperm whales are known for entering the dock specifically to hunt not just giant squids, but also these colossal too.
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When those whales came back up for air, they carried the receipts of the battle on their skin.
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On a giant squid, the tentacles have suction cups lined with tiny teeth.
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They leave circular, ring -like scars on a whale's face, basically just very aggressive hickeys.
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But when scientists looked at whales coming out of the Antarctic, the scars were different.
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They were long, jagged gashes, deep parallel slices in the blubber.
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We could have blown these off as some freaky giant squids, that they don't just want to hold on to you, they want to tear you open.
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Its tentacles are armed with hooks that can swivel, dig in, and then rotate 360 degrees.
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Those scars were the first proof that there was something else down there, something heavier and much more violent than the giant squid.
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The rest of our evidence comes from the black boxes found inside whale's stomachs.
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While the rest of the squid is soft and digests easy, the beak is made of hard chitin, which is basically impossible to break down.
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beaks inside single whales.
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By measuring the size of the beak, they can estimate the size of the squid it belonged to, and what they found was terrifying.
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Some of these beaks were so large that they could only belong to a creature weighing over 1 ,000 pounds, nearly double the mass of the largest giant squids.
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We eventually got our hands on a few real specimens, mostly by accident.
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In 2007, a fishing boat in the Ross Sea accidentally snagged a massive adult that was busy eating a
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got it on the scale, it weighed nearly 1 ,100 pounds.
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Alright, so they're massive, they live in the freezing dark, and they're armed to the teeth.
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But that doesn't explain why their eyes are just so big.
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In fact, most animals that are this deep in the ocean have what are called "Vestigual Eyes".
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These are eyes that have essentially been deleted by evolution.
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Because there's no sunlight to see with, building a complex, working eyeball is a massive waste of energy.
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But evolution takes a long time to just remove eyes entirely.
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So you end up with eyes that are kinda just shriveled up and don't work.
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But the colossal's eyes are actually functional.
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And yes, they're bigger than your is incredibly stingy.
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It doesn't waste energy building massive, complex organs unless they are absolutely necessary for survival.
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But remember where these squids live.
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They spend their entire lives thousands of meters down, where the last ray of sunlight died out about half a mile above them.
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And where they are, there's no small traces.
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It's effectively zero light.
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So why would evolution bother building the most powerful optical sensors
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on the planet for a world where there is nothing to see?
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Well, while there's no sunlight in the abyss, is full of bioluminescence.
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Thousands of tiny organisms, from jellyfish to plankton, glow when they are disturbed.
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But the squid doesn't actually care about them at all.
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He's not hunting the jellyfish and definitely not hunting any plankton.
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He's watching, waiting, for this guy.
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When a sperm whale, the only thing big enough to kill a colossal squid, moves through the deep, its massive body crashes through the clouds of bioluminescent plankton.
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the squid can pick up that tiny, microscopic flicker of light from over 100 meters away.
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It's the biological equivalent of long -range radar.
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It gives this thousand -pound tank just enough time to realize it's about to be hunted
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and start retreating into the darkness before the whale even knows it's there.
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These eyes would not be anywhere near this big if sperm whales didn't exist.
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The sperm whales have indirectly created the world's biggest eyeballs,
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and not prey, but whale detection is by far the main reason.
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Honestly, if you were a sperm whale, you probably don't even know the difference between giant and colossal squids.
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You'd probably just dive down, find a squid and think "wow, this one's a lot heavier" and putting up a way bigger fight.
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This guy's chunky.
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And then you'd slurp him up anyways.
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Sperm whales are suspected to win the fights against the squids high majority of the time, but it's likely colossals would at least put up a better fight due to them being even deeper and stronger.
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If you're a thousand pounds of soft tissue with literally zero bones, how do you not just… slump into a puddle?
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On land, a creature this heavy without a skeleton would be a physical impossibility.
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Its own weight would crush its organs before it could even take a step.
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But the ocean provides an overpowered loophole: buoyancy.
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The colossal squid uses neutral density tissues, essentially a mix of specialized oils and ions in its flesh
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that make its body exactly as heavy as the water it's sitting in.
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It's not heavy in the way we think of weight, it's effectively weightless.
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It doesn't need a skeleton to hold itself up because the water is doing all the work.
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And as for that skyscraper level pressure, doesn't crush the squid because the squid has no air filled gaps, no lungs to collapse, no scientist cavities to cave in.
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doesn't compress.
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It doesn't get crushed for the same reason a bottle of water doesn't get crushed at the bottom of a pool.
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The pressure inside is exactly the same as the pressure outside.
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But this brings up an even bigger problem.
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If you have to build soccer ball sized eyes just to see a predator coming, and you're armed with rotating meat hooks to fight them off, why did you even bother becoming so big in the first place?
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Why not just stay small so sperm whales would never even target you?
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It's not like there's many other things hunting you that deep in the water anyways, right?
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Well, the colossal squid isn't hunting small shrimp or tiny fish.
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It's specialized to take down other heavyweights of the Southern Ocean, like the Antarctic Toothfish.
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These are massive, muscular fish that can grow over 6 feet long and weigh over 100 pounds.
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If you want to snatch a 100 -pound, thrashing fish out of the dark, you can't be a squishy 3 -foot tube.
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You'd be a fish slapped to death.
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You'd need the mass to hold it down, hence why they're so ridiculously heavy, and the hooks to rip through its scales.
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the squid to grow into a tank because its prey was already built like one.
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But there's a second, even more important reason for the bulk: starvation.
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In the deep ocean, food is a freak occurrence.
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You might go weeks or even months without a single meal swimming into your reach.
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When you're small, your battery is tiny.
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You run out of energy and die quickly.
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But a thousand pound body is essentially a massive biological reservoir.
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This is essentially the on polar giants, you'd know the colossal squid is also subject to polar gigantism,
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likely why it got so freakishly big.
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But having a massive body is only half the battle.
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If you want to keep a thousand pounds of muscle from freezing solid, you need a way to move oxygen through your system without your blood turning into sludge.
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And this is where the colossal squid outclasses anything on land.
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If you were to see a colossal squid bleed, it wouldn't be red, it would be blue.
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See, humans and most other mammals use hemoglobin, an iron -based carry oxygen.
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It's great for us, but in the freezing Southern Ocean, iron -based blood is a disaster.
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When temperatures hit zero, red blood becomes thick and sluggish, and it starts holding on to oxygen too tightly, refusing to release it to the cells that actually need it to function.
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So, the squid ditched the iron entirely and replaced it with copper.
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This copper -based blood, called hemocyanin, is an evolutionary masterpiece for the cold.
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It doesn't get thick or sticky in the freezing deep, and it's actually more efficient at transporting oxygen the colder the water gets.
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It's the only reason an invertebrate this massive can keep its internal engine running in a literal freezer.
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But this blue blood hack comes with a massive trade -off.
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Copper -based blood just isn't as powerful as iron -based blood.
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It's like trying to run a monster truck on AA batteries.
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It provides enough energy to keep the squid alive, but it doesn't provide enough for high -speed chases or long -distance swimming.
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This is why the colossal squid isn't a relentless hunter like a shark.
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It's forced to be a statue.
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It has to spend most of its life essentially idling in the dark, moving as little as possible to save its low -grade fuel for the one moment it needs to strike.
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This is incredibly effective for their environment, but wouldn't allow them to destroy ships all day like we think a Kraken would.
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But this brings up the ultimate irony of the colossal squid.
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Evolution gave them the largest eyes to see predators, the heaviest bodies to survive starvation, and rotating hooks to win any fight.
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They are arguably the most optimized predators on the planet.
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So, why haven't they taken over?
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If they're so perfect, why are they trapped in one tiny, freezing corner of the world?
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often turns you into a biological prisoner.
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The colossal squid is a masterpiece of a very specific, very narrow set of conditions.
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The deep ocean in the rest of the world is also cold, but there's a bunch of other issues that make them way less versatile than giant squids, which are found everywhere.
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First, there's the oxygen problem.
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As I mentioned, high oxygen water isn't just a bonus for these squids.
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It's the only reason they can exist.
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If a colossal squid tried to swim north into the temperate deep sea where giant squids live, it would literally suffocate.
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Even though those waters are still cold to us, they don't hold nearly enough dissolved oxygen to support a thousand pound invertebrate.
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But it's also the food.
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The colossal squid is specialized to hunt these Antarctic toothfish.
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If the squid moved anywhere else, it would lose its skin primary fuel source.
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In most of the deep ocean, prey is much smaller and faster, things a thousand -pound ambush predator simply isn't designed to catch.
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And then there's the competition.
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In the rest of the world's ocean, the large squid niche is already taken.
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The giant squid is faster, leaner, and much better suited for the slightly warmer, more competitive waters of the midnight zone.
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The colossal squid only works because it lives in a place so hostile and so cold that almost nothing
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a kingdom in a desert where it has zero competition for food.
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But the price of that kingdom is that it can never leave.
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It's like being trapped in a freezer for your entire life.
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At least you'll find some big tasty toothfish in there occasionally.
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It's a biological loophole that allowed them to become the heaviest invertebrates on earth.
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But because they exploited this loophole, they can only survive as long as the environment stays exactly as it is.
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You can find giant squids close to Norway, all the way down to New Zealand.
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They aren't locked into one freezing current or one specific prey.
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They are the standard, successful blueprint for what a giant should look like.
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They're built to be versatile, able to navigate different temperatures, and hunt dozens of different species.
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They make sense, their biology follows the rules.
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But the colossal squid… shouldn't even be here.
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It shouldn't be able to see in the dark, but it does.
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It shouldn't be able to breathe in the deep, but it does.
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And it definitely shouldn't be able to maintain a thousand pounds of muscle in the freezing desert.
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I almost feel bad for these guys.
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They're stuck in a one dark, lonely place forever, hiding from horrifying sperm whales and being dormant until they can find a big toothfish to eat.
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It's not the most awesome existence to be.
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I'll get over it though.
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It's just a squid.
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Thanks for watching and if you enjoyed check out our video on deep -sea gigantism here.
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There's a lot more than just colossal squids out there.
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Context & Background
The video titled "Nothing About Colossal Squids Is Normal... Here's Why" explores the extraordinary biology and habitat of the colossal squid, a creature shrouded in mystery due to its ability to thrive in the harshest conditions of the deep ocean. The speaker discusses how this giant squid differs significantly from its relative, the giant squid, highlighting the adaptations that allow it to survive and hunt in one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth. The fascinating insights presented in this video make it an interesting context for English language learners looking to enhance their vocabulary and pronunciation skills in scientific discussions.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Every animal has a size limit.” – A phrase to express natural boundaries and limits.
- “This animal shouldn’t be able to exist.” – Useful for discussing unusual situations or phenomena.
- “Their mass is over a thousand pounds.” – A way to convey factual information about weight or size.
- “We’ve never captured footage of an adult.” – Helpful when talking about observations or gaps in knowledge.
- “The scars were the first proof.” – A statement indicating evidence or validation in a discussion.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
The shadowing technique is an effective method for English speaking practice, especially when dealing with scientific or complex materials like this video. Here’s a step-by-step guide to utilizing the content for enhancing your skills:
- Choose a Shadowing App: Select a shadowing app or site that allows you to play video transcripts alongside audio. This will help you catch nuances in pronunciation and intonation.
- Watch and Listen: Initially, watch the video without trying to speak. Focus on understanding the concepts and observing how the speaker articulates words.
- Repeat Phrases: Using the identified phrases, practice repeating them out loud after the speaker. Focus on mimicking their tone and rhythm.
- Record Yourself: Use the app to record your voice while shadowing the speaker. This will allow you to identify areas for improvement in pronunciation.
- Review and Adjust: Listen to your recording and compare it to the original. Make adjustments to your articulation and accent as necessary.
By consistently applying the shadowing technique, you’ll not only improve your English speaking practice but also increase your comprehension of complex subjects like marine biology. Happy learning!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are known · are armed · is made |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | We've never captured · has already given · we've recorded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Antarctica, which is · chitin, which is · squids, which are |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.