Some animals are skilled flyers, climbers, or swimmers, and some are expert hiders, or at least from us. Here are a few animals that humans have rarely interacted with.
Giant Squid
A typical giant squid is 33 feet long and weighs 440 pounds. To paint you a picture, that is around the length of a school bus. The largest squid ever recorded was a staggering 59 feet long and weighed nearly a tonne. Despite being the world’s largest invertebrate, we haven’t had many run-ins with these majestic creatures. And while giant squid carcasses have been discovered washed up on beaches around the world, it’s unclear how many are left in our oceans.
Blue Whale
The world’s largest animal (weighing 200 tonnes and measuring 80-100 feet in length), the blue whale, is rarely seen or photographed. The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service confirmed that a blue whale has been spotted only three times off Sydney’s coast in the last 100 years. Even the most passionate researchers and whale watchers are unable to catch a glimpse of the gentle giants. This is because blue whales prefer to live far out at sea, their populations are dispersed, and we know very little about their migration and critical habitat.
Coelacanth
Since we had only ever seen coelacanth fossils, the fish was long thought to have been extinct. So when a coelacanth was spotted off the coast of South Africa, it sent shock waves around the world. It’s been dubbed “a living fossil” due to its century-long life span.