Today I wish to address the relationship between the sperm whale the giant squid, as popular media and art such as this video here tend to misinterpret the nature of these underwater struggles as being ''near-even fights'' like say a cobra vs a mongoose.

My first point I wish to get out of the way is that the video in no way presents an accurate size differential between sperm whales and giant squids. Left: How many think a 60-ft bull whale vs a giant squid looks.
Right: How a giant squid actually looks vs a 40-ft female.

Pretty crazy right? The giant squid has been the brutal victim of size overestimation. Reports of individuals reaching 15-20+ meters in length are actually unreliable due to total-length estimates being made with incomplete specimens or irregular measuring techniques.

For example, one cause of over-estimation is due to the squid's lack of a skeleton, this has led to scientists measuring specimens that were stretched beyond what they normally were during their lifetime. So when we limit ourselves to the scientifically-verified data pool-

The median size for a giant squid is 7.9 meters with the largest ones being about 11-12 meters in length. By comparison, female sperm whales average 10-12 meters, and males average 14-16 meters with a max of 20.7 meters. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4304853/

Still pretty close right? Well, first we need an anatomy lesson. The majority of a giant squid's length comes from its long limbs known as tentacles. The mantle of the largest giant squids are about 2.5 meters and its mantle+ its arms is about 5 meters

Now, we're just talking length, what about its mass? How many tons are giant squids? The most massive giant squid ever recorded was less than 1 ton at 907 kg, recorded in 1871. However, that figure is no longer widely accepted. Why? Because the 2nd most massive was only 317kg.

For those with a decent grip on how distributions work, it should be alarming when the alleged maximum mass is not 3 times greater than the average, but the 2ND largest mass. In addition, 95% of recorded giant squids are below 250 kg, so the more realistic maximum would be the-

317kg figure. So to put that in perspective, the average female sperm whale is about 10-20 tons and the average male is about 35-55 tons w/ a max of 70. An average bull sperm whale of 40 tons vs the heaviest giant squid at 317 kg is a ratio of ~115. For comparison, an 80lb wolf

vs 3lb rabbit is about ~27. So from a size perspective, speculating the likelihood of a giant squid being an even combatant to a sperm whale is even dodgier than speculating whether a rabbit could harm a wolf. But size isn't the only factor, let's view this from another angle.

Sperm whales are big animals and require over a ton of food a day and spend 75% of their lives foraging. This requires them to be efficient hunters. Giant squids are not their only prey, but are still casual prey to sperm whales, much like rabbits are to wolves.

So, does it makes sense that sperm whales, who are required to be efficient eaters, would evolve to casually feed on prey that poses a large threat to their lives? Now, this video shows the giant squid's sharp suction-teeth, and it's true that they do leave scars on sperm whales.

However, unlike in the video, these cuts are unlikely to cause the sperm whale to bleed significantly, if at all. Sperm whales have some of the thickest skin on the planet, reaching about 14-inches in certain areas of the body, not including the subcutaneous fat.

Now, despite making it clear a giant squid has no practical means of killing a sperm whale, giant squids can still ''win'' in a fight. However, this requires re-defining a ''win''. Back to the wolf/rabbit-analogy, a ''win'' for the rabbit is escaping the wolf, not killing it.

In its struggle against a sperm whale, a giant squid will not really be a deadly foe, but it can be *costly* prey. Squids over time have evolved senses and abilities to aid in their chances of pre-emptively noticing and avoiding hungry sperm whales once they're caught.

And larger squids generally do have better chances of avoiding predation as female sperm whales don't hunt 12-meter squids, only the largest males often do. Those squids can't kill the smaller whales, but they would be too good at escaping to be efficiently hunted by them.

I hope for those unaware, this thread was informative.