The deep-sea roly-poly the size of a cat that can fast for years
This deep-sea creature is a roly-poly the size of a cat — and can go years without eating.
Which one is REALLY true about the Giant Isopod?
The short version
The giant isopod is a deep-sea relative of the pill bug that grows to cat size. It scavenges carcasses that fall to the seabed, can gorge on a single huge meal (like a dead whale) and then survive years without eating — one famously refused food for over 5 years. It curls into an armored ball when threatened.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Giant Isopod is a deep-sea relative of the little pill bugs you find under garden rocks.
- ✓The Giant Isopod grows to about the size of a house cat.
- ✓The Giant Isopod scavenges dead animals that drift down to the cold, crushing ocean floor.
- ✓The Giant Isopod can gorge on a single huge meal, like a dead whale, then survive years without eating.
- ✓The Giant Isopod curls up into an armored ball when threatened, just like its tiny garden cousin.
The full story
This is basically a roly-poly bug that grew to the size of a house cat. Meet the giant isopod, a deep-sea relative of the little pill bugs you find under rocks in your garden. It crawls along the cold, crushing darkness of the ocean floor, scavenging whatever dead animals drift down from the world above. Because food is so rare down there, it has one incredible trick. It can gorge itself on a single huge meal, like a dead whale, and then survive for years without eating again. One isopod in an aquarium famously refused all food for over five years and still survived. When threatened, it curls up into an armored ball, just like its tiny garden cousin. Ancient, armored, and almost impossible to starve. Follow for more weird animal facts.
A giant isopod is cold-blooded, and its home on the deep seafloor is dark, near-freezing, and almost empty of food. That cold makes its whole body run in slow motion, so it burns energy incredibly slowly instead of fast like a warm animal. When a big dead animal drifts down, the isopod gorges and packs its huge stomach full, storing the energy like fuel in a tank. It can then idle quietly on those reserves for months or even years until the next meal arrives.
📚 Source: Meet the Giant Isopods — Smithsonian Ocean ↗Keepers at Japan's Toba Aquarium watched and recorded one captive giant isopod refuse every single meal for 5 years and 43 days before it died in 2014, giving scientists a real, measured example of how long these animals can fast.
📚 Source: Giant isopods: curious crustaceans on the ocean floor — Natural History Museum ↗Check what you learned
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“The Giant Isopod is a deep-sea relative of the little pill bugs you find under garden rocks.”
“The Giant Isopod has the largest eyes of any animal alive, roughly the size of a human head.”
“The Giant Isopod grows to about the size of a house cat.”
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Giant Isopod gallery
