Blind mate: giant squid leaves sex to chance

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2004

STRALSUND, Germany (AFP) — The giant squid is not especially choosy when it comes to sex and will mate blind without checking if the object of its affections is male or female, a German researcher said.

Volker Miske, of the Stralsund maritime museum in northeast Germany, said a male specimen being prepared for conservation had sperm underneath its skin.

The giant squid reproduces by the male injecting sperm under the skin of its female partner.

"The theory about two male giant squid mating is not new, but for the first time we have something that seriously supports that theory," he told AFP.

"It's the first time that (sperm) traces have been discovered in a part of the body so far from the sexual organ.

"Until now, it was thought males...