Sperm+whale

Type in the content of your page here. Animal: Animal Group: Description of animal group || Sperm Whale (Physeter catodon) Mammal Whales travel in a small gruop of whales called a pod || Observation Describe your animal (Colour, size, body parts) || This large whale weighs an average of 40 tonnes, and can reach a weight of 50 tonnes. Large males can grow to 20 metres in length, and females only 12 metres. The female weighs on average one third of what the male whale weighs. They have a large box type head, which makes it easily distinguishable and sets the sperm whale aside from other whales. It has a huge brain that weighs about 20 pounds (9 kg); it is the largest brain of any animal. Sperm whale teeth are uniform. The teeth in the upper jaw never erupt. The teeth in the long, thin lower jaw are conical and huge, about 7 inches (18 cm) long. These teeth weigh about 2 pounds (900 g) each. The lower jaw is about 16 feet (5 m) long and has about 50-60 teeth in it. When the whale's mouth is closed, the teeth fit into sockets in the upper jaw. || Describe how your animal behaves (moves, flies, runs) || These whales can reach speeds of 30 km/h under the water if threatened, but generally attain a speed of 10 km/h when moving through water. Sperm whales are the deepest diving whales. Although they live at the surface they dive to hunt giant squid which are bottom sea dwellers. They have been known to dive as deep as 10,500 feet (3,200 m), but average dives are about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) deep. The Sperm whale can hold its breath for about an hour. || Where it lives || Sperm whales are found in many open oceans, both in tropical and cool waters. Sperm whales live at the surface of the ocean but dive very deeply to catch the giant squid. || What it eats How it eats || Their favorite meal is squid, and these whales are one of the only natural enemies of the legendary giant squid and its larger cousin, the colossal squid. While these battles between the world's two largest predators have never been observed directly, much evidence has been found on the bodies of dead whales. The remains of these massive squid have been found in the stomachs of the whales, and scars from the powerful suction cups of the squid's arms have been found on the whales' skin. The whales will dive as deep as 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) in search of the massive squid, although they more typically hunt at about 2,600 feet (800 meters). Sperm whales are carnivores that mostly eat giant squid that live on the ocean bottom at great depths. They also eat fish, octopus, and skate. In 1998, off the coast of Indonesia, 3 sperm whales were observed attacking a rare, filter feeding megamouth shark. An adult Sperm whale can eat about a ton of food each day. || How does it have babies? How does it care for its babies? How long do they live? || Sperm whale breeding is not very dependent on the seasons. The gestation period is over 16 months and the calf is born tail first near the surface of the water. The newborn instinctively swims to the surface within 10 seconds for its first breath; it is helped by its mother. Within 30 minutes of its birth the baby whale can swim. The newborn calf is about 13 feet (4 m) long and weighs about 1 ton (0.9 tonnes). Twins are extremely rare (about 1% of births); there is almost always one calf. The interval between births is about 3-4 years. A female reaches maturity at 9-10 years (males reach maturity at 18-19 years) and lives to be about 40 years of age. On average, a female will give birth to about 7-10 calves during her life. Frequently, other whales "assist" in the birth. The baby is nurtured with its mother's milk and is weaned in about 2 years. Calves drink 45 pounds (20 kg) of milk each day. A single young calf is born after a gestation period of about 14 to 16 months. The calf will suckle on its mother's milk for up to 42 months. Females reach maturity at between 7 and 13 years of age, while males generally do not mature until the age of 18. Male sperm whales do not reach their maximum size until about 50 years of age. || What does it do during the day and night? || A recent study suggests that sperm whales, at least, may be of two minds when it comes to sleep--snoozing with one side of their brain at a time, even as they perform rhythmic dives. The study found that sperm whales spend about 7 percent of their time in such "drift-dives" (which might also be called "drift-off-to-sleep-dives"). The dives occur most often between 6 p.m. and midnight, and they can be either head-first plunges or tail-first drops. Though very little is known about sleep in wild cetaceans, toothed cetaceans in captivity sleep with one side of their brain at a time. Such uni-hemispheric sleep is thought to enable swimming, voluntary breathing, predator avoidance and/or social contact during sleep at sea. Using suction cup tags, we discovered that sperm whales (//Physeter macrocephalus//) worldwide conduct passive shallow drift-dives in stereotypical vertical postures just below the sea surface. Bouts of drift-dives accounted for 7.1% of recording time, or 36.7% of non-foraging time. Drift-dives were weakly diurnal, occurring least from 06:0012:00 (3% of records), and most from 18:0024:00 (30% of records). A group of vertically drifting whales were atypically nonresponsive to a closely-passing vessel until it inadvertently touched them, suggesting that sperm whales might sleep during these stereotypical resting dives. || How has it changed over time in Antarctica? || Sperm whales are found in all oceans, and are divided into northern and southern hemisphere populations. They do not migrate between warmer and colder seas like other baleen whales, although there are regular seasonal shifts in sperm whale populations. Like other large whales, sperm whales move North in the summer to feed. Males can be found in subarctic waters, while females and juveniles are less likely to migrate as far north. Only the large mature male sperm whales are found in the polar seas, the Davis and Denmark Straits, off western and northern Norway, and occasionally near Svalbard and in the Barents Sea. || The sperm whale is not as vocal as other whales, however it can still emite a variety of sounds from chirps or squeaks to groans and clicks. When the sperm whale interacts with another whale, they will sound a series of clicks anywhere between a few and fourty. This is known as the whale coda. ||
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 * **Threats:** || Killer whales have been seen attacking sperm whales, but usually unsuccessfully. Pilot whales are also known to harass them. Other potential predators of younger animals include large sharks. When confronted with predators individuals are known to cluster together into defensive formations. These whales were one of the most heavily exploited of all the world’s whales, although they are still relatively abundant. Present day threats include entanglement in fishing gear and collision with ships. Studies on the effects of tourism on sperm whales have found them to react negatively to rapid approaches by vessels, sudden changes in speed and close approaches (MacGibbon, 1991). Whales respond by spending less time at the surface, and so tourism has an impact on their normal behaviour. ||
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 * **Other Facts:** || The sperm whale was named for the valuable spermaceti oil (wax) that this whale produces in the spermaceti organ (located in its head). Sperm whales use echolocation to catch their prey in the dark oceanic depths. Mothers also use it it keep track of their young calf when they are diving to hunt; a calf cannot dive very deeply because it has to breathe much more frequently than the mother does.
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