# Giant squid and other weird creatures **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2002, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328 "2002-12-04T01:44:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/41 "2002-12-06T23:07:03Z")
New Zealanders recently found an unusual [giant octopus](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1898313.stm). However, that octopus doesn’t hold a candle to the [St. Augustine Monster](http://www.dixiexfiles.homestead.com/giant_octopus.html), which was fairly credibly documented in 1896. Perhaps the NZ specimen was only a juvenile. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/42 "2002-12-06T23:24:12Z")
Beadalin, I started a thread about the giant Alaskan bird when it first made news. Then JUST THIS AFTERNOON I wondered if there was any update. Then I saw your post! Know what? I’m gonna start a new thread to see if anyone else has heard anything. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/43 "2002-12-06T23:30:50Z")
Some good information in a thread I started about living Giant Squid [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76986). ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/44 "2002-12-06T23:33:20Z")
I think there’s some kind of jungle elephant in India. I didn’t read the article, just saw the headline in the WSJ recently. A blurb said that there weren’t any photos of it until the 90’s. I’m really struggling for specifics, anyone know what I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/45 "2002-12-06T23:52:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andymurph64 \* > \*\*I thought ‘they’ (you know - them) were pretty sure that some sort of marsupial ‘tiger’ existed in Australia. Not sure but very plausible even though one hasn’t been verified yet. \*\* Are you thinking of the Tasmanian Tiger? The Thylacine is(or rather was) a striped marsupial, with a wolflike appearance. I’ll get a link. _Dread Cthulhu_ The viperfish and several squid images from links in this thread have been saved in my Cthulhu directory. Sadly, I still can’t find a living animal resembling a Byakhee. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/46 "2002-12-06T23:56:49Z")
IIRC, a mycologist collecting samples claimed to have spotted DeLoy’s Ape, five feet tall, no tail and all. Insert hallucinigentic mushrrom joke of your choice. The thylacine, the marsupial “Tasmanian tiger”, definately existed once. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/47 "2002-12-06T23:59:28Z")
Shoot! I prematurely submitted, but **DocCathode** brought up the thylacine anyway. Last known thylacine died in captivity in the thirties, but there has been speculation that a few are hanging on out there. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/48 "2002-12-07T00:06:52Z")
This thread is like crack, I swear. I can’t stay out of it. [Here’s a link](http://www.austmus.gov.au/thylacine/) to stuff about the Thylacine. And **stuyguy** did start a thread about the giant Alaskan bird-- thanks! Hope the faithful Teeming Millions come up with something more. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/49 "2002-12-07T00:38:05Z")
Man, information on rare/unidentified animals (especially big ones!) is always really interesting. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/50 "2002-12-07T01:15:41Z")
Did anyone go and listen to the “bloop” sound? You can check it out here: [https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/sounds/bloop.wav](https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/sounds/bloop.wav) Apparently that’s what it sounds like when speeded up to 16X speed. Be warned: it’s a lot more exciting in principle than in the actual listening. Great thread, folks; it’s really introduced me to new and fascinating animals which are collectively expanding the known frontiers of ugliness. Like that Vu Quang critter: [Brian Fellows] That goat has DEVIL-EYES! [/Brian Fellows] ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328/51 "2002-12-07T02:40:51Z")
The thylacine was declared an endangered species, and hunting of them was banned, shortly after the last known specimen died from exposure after a zoo employee forgot to lock it up at night. From time to time since people travelling in remote areas of Tasmania have claimed to see them moving about in the brush. Then again, people see all sorts of improbable things bumping around in the dark; back in the mid-60s there was a brief flurry of excitement in my neighborhood in suburban St. Louis after people started seeing rats the size of small dogs moving around at night. They were, in fact, opossums. Just as there may be a few Thylacines in the wild escaping documentation, it has been suggested that there might–just maybe-- also be a few specimens of Steller’s Sea Cow still lurking in the northern Pacific. These were toothless Sirenians, similar to dugongs or manatees but measuring up to _35 feet in length_which were first spotted in the Bering Sea by the crew of a ship commanded by Captain Bering himself in 1741. They were figured to be hunted to extinction by the 1780’s, but one was found sometime in the mid to late 19th Century. Some writers on sea serpents and related mysteries have suggested tha if the creatures still exist, they could account for some sightings of sea monsters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-squid-and-other-weird-creatures/140328.md?page=2)