Nothing About the Giant Cuttlefish Is Normal... Here’s Why

Nothing about the Australian giant cuttlefish is normal. Three hearts. Blue blood. Skin that can copy a rock. And the only known mass cuttlefish breeding site on Earth, at Whyalla in South Australia's Spencer Gulf. But this year, the count fell to a record low of 1,811. So why is this animal so strange, and what happened at Point Lowly? In this video: the giant cuttlefish's three hearts and blue blood, how its skin changes color and texture, why it can't see color, the cuttlefish "marshmallow test," the Whyalla breeding aggregation, sneaker males that disguise themselves as females, and this year's record-low population estimate. CHAPTERS What we're dealing with Weird thing one: the hearts and the blood Weird thing two: the skin It can't see color Weird thing three: the brain The gathering But the biggest male doesn't always win What happened this year SOURCES Giant Australian Cuttlefish numbers at historic lows, 2026 survey (PIRSA, South Australian Government): https://pir.sa.gov.au/news/fishing-an... Breeding site exclusion zone and survey history (PIRSA): https://pir.sa.gov.au/news/fishing-an... The Whyalla giant cuttlefish aggregation (PBS Nature): https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/untol... Animals with multiple hearts, including cuttlefish (Discover Wildlife): https://discoverwildlife.com/animal-f... How cuttlefish skin changes color and texture (WorldAtlas): https://worldatlas.com/animals/cuttle... Cuttlefish and the marshmallow test (University of Cambridge): https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/c... Female impersonation in giant cuttlefish (Norman et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Mating system of the Whyalla aggregation (University of Adelaide): https://eres.library.adelaide.edu.au/... The cuttlefish self-control study used common cuttlefish, a close relative of the giant cuttlefish. The 2026 figure is a survey estimate for the Upper Spencer Gulf breeding site. Footage and illustrations are used for illustration only. Figures are drawn from the sources above and may vary slightly between reports. Subscribe to Beyond the Bush for more of Australia's strangest stories. What Australian animal or place should we look into next? Tell me in the comments. #GiantCuttlefish #Australia #MarineLife