As astute readers may have noticed, I’ve recently cultivated a sort of giant-squid beat here at Collision Detection. Now another fascinating bit of squid trivia has just come across the transom.

As you may know, no giant squid has ever been observed alive; we’ve only ever recovered dead carcasses. But according to the BBC, a bunch of scientists have figured out a way to lure a male giant squid to the surface: By tempting him with squid genitals. The scientists have apparently been saving cephalapod unmentionables for some time, to use as bait. As one explains:

“The freezer bag at home — to my wife’s disgust — is actually full of giant squid gonad samples. We’re going to grind all of this up, and we’re going to have this puree coming out from the camera, squirting into the water. Hopefully the male giant squid, absolutely driven into a frenzy, is going to come up and try to mate with the camera.

“This is the dream - we’re going to get this sensational footage of the giant squid trying to do obscene things with the camera.”

(Thanks to Jessica’s Peace Dividend for finding this one!)