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What Do You Know About Sperm Whales?


Sperm Whale

Sperm whales are the biggest toothed whales, with one of the most extensive worldwide ranges of any marine animal. They can be found throughout all deep seas, from the equator to the Arctic & Antarctic pack ice edge.


Pods of Sperm Whales and Their Behavior

Sperm whales are frequently seen in groups of 15 to 20 individuals known as pods. Females and their offspring live in pods, while males wander alone or migrate from community to community. Females and calves spend the whole year in subtropical and tropical seas, and they seem to conduct communal childcare. Males travel alone or in groups to higher latitudes and then return to the equator to procreate. They can cruise the seas at about 23 miles per hour, propelled by their tail fluke, around 16 feet from tip to tip.


Whaling target

Whaling's heyday was in the 18th and 19th centuries when sperm whales were a staple. During Herman Melville's Moby Dick, a legendary albino sperm whale became immortalized, but Ahab's adversary was probably modeled on a real animal whaler named Mocha Dick. The whales were hunted for oil and ambergris, a material that develops around squid beaks in the stomach of the animals. Ambergris was (and still is) a highly prized ingredient in fragrances.


How do sperm whales go about hunting?

Sperm whales consume around 900 kilograms (almost 2,000 lbs.) of food each day. They dive between 300 to 1,200 meters (990 - 4,000 feet) to locate their food (ideally gigantic squid), but they may travel as deep as 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) when on the search. An hour is the average duration of a dive. Sperm whales utilize echolocation to concentrate on their prey and produce a sequence of clicks, the world's loudest animal-caused sounds.


The bottom jaw teeth of a sperm whale are approximately 20 to 24 cm long, and they fit into sockets on the bottom of the palate. A sperm whale's top teeth never grow off its upper jaw. Sperm whales & giant squid are thought to be natural adversaries, according to scientists. While no real fights have ever been seen, sperm whales sometimes have circular wounds said to have been caused by gigantic squid suckers. Sperm whale pods may cooperate to push feeding fish into ball-like clusters that are more solid to eat than individuals while hunting smaller fish.


Is it true that sperm whales are social?

Adult male sperm whales stay alone when they are not mating. Female sperm whales & their young, on the other hand, congregate in pods of up to 20 individuals. Around the age of four, the male sperm whale departs, occasionally establishing its pod with the other young males. As the males become older, this pod will likewise break off. Male sperm whales have been the only species that go to the colder seas near the poles, while female and juvenile sperm whales stay in temperate and tropical zones.


Most of the sperm whales' time is spent hunting, although they sometimes take a break in the afternoon to participate in more social behavior. Calling one another and rubbing against one other are examples of this. When harassed, sperm whales adopt a "marguerite configuration," with their tails pushed outward to protect a vulnerable pod member.


What is the maximum speed at which sperm whales can swim?

A sperm whale's typical cruising speed is between 5 and 15 kilometers per hour (3 to 9 mph). Sperm whales may swim at speeds of 35 to 45 kilometers per hour (22 to 28 miles per hour) and can sustain these speeds for up to an hour.


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