Killer Jellyfish

We watched Killer Jellyfish from the Natural Killers series today.

The Jellyfish DVD is a documentary that talks about jellyfish from Australia that are known killers. The kids get to learn how jellyfish are born and how they hunt.

Here's the information from the back of the DVD cover.

- The sea wasp, a type of box jellyfish, is the most deadly creature on earth, with enough venom to kill 60 people within four minutes. It haunts the beautiful shores of north Queensland in Australia. But it is not alone.

- It has an almost invisible cousin, known as the Irukandji jellyfish. Packed in this fingernail-sized creature is a sting so agonizing that not even morphine relieves the pain.

- Discover how two researchers risk their lives to unlock the secrets of the Irukandji jellyfish, and how Queensland's swimmers are learning to protect themselves.

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Kira was prompted to ask me what the word "gravitate" means because the researchers were talking about how the jellyfish gravitate to certain areas to follow their prey.

Personally, I love watching this particular DVD. Each time I watch it I learn something new. This time I learned how jellyfish polyps clone themselves to create multiple jellies from one single fertilized egg. It's really cool to watch the computer generated animations of the process.

There is also a computer generated animation of the stingers process when the jellyfish sting. That is pretty neat to watch, as well.