Squids use less energy for faster speed when flying

Nature : Many species of squid can propel themselves through the air by squirting water out of their mantles, just as they do to swim. Flying is not only faster for squid than swimming is; it may also save them energy over long distances. Ronald O’Dor of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada and Julia Stewart of Stanford University in California studied a set of photos of orange-back squid ( Sthenoteuthis pteropus) leaping out of the water and calculated their speed and acceleration. The squids’ speed in air while the squid were propelling themselves with the water jet was five times faster than than any measurements O’Dor had made for comparable squid species in water. O’Dor believes that squid use flight as a way to save energy, but it could be the case that the squid use flight to avoid predators. To find out, O’Dor proposes to estimate what proportion of time squid spend above water by fitting them with tags that measure acceleration, and then investigating the gliding, rather than just the rocketing, part of their flight.