The bell looks a little like an eight-pointed star because it is made up of eight lobes. Colourful arms emerge from the centre of the bell, these are shorter than the silvery, thin tentacles of which there are so many - it has eight groups, with 70-150 tentacles in each group.
It lives in the icy waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans. Despite its massive size, the jellyfish is hunted by seabirds, fish like the ocean sunfish and leatherback sea turtles, which sometimes only feed on this jellyfish and nothing else! The lion's mane jellyfish usually hovers near the water surface, no deeper than 20 m. and relies on the current to push it forward.
Can you guess how the animal got its name? By its tentacles of course! They resemble a lion's mane! They vary in colour as they grow during their short lifespan of about a year - from pink and yellow to a reddish-brown.
Author: Sanctuary Asia, First appeared in: Sanctuary Cub, January 2013.
