Who is the largest animal on Earth? Probably many of us will think that this is an elephant. In principle, there is some truth. Elephant is the largest animal living on land. But life, as you know, is not limited to one land, especially since 75% of the entire Earth’s surface is occupied by seas and oceans. The aquatic life form is a unique macrocosm with its magnificent and, in most cases, little-studied organisms. The largest animal in the world does not live on land, but in the ocean. His name is whale. In turn, the largest toothed whale on Earth is the sperm whale. In this article we will talk about cetaceans and tell in detail everything about the life, nutrition and breeding of the largest toothed whale.
Sovereigns of the boundless seas
To begin with, it should be determined that whales are mammals, and not fish at all, as many ordinary people think. They do not breathe with gills, like fish, but with lungs. A whale cannot stay under water all his life! From time to time, these animals need to rise to the surface of the water to breathe a breath of fresh air. This is their vital need. Since all cetaceans are mammals, they give birth to already formed living cubs and feed them milk. Whale milk is considered much more nutritious than cow. This allows the kittens to grow quite quickly.
The paradox of these mighty lords of the seas is that, like mammals, they are completely helpless and powerless on land. On earth, no whale can move even a meter! These animals will simply not be able to overcome their own mass. Unfortunately, when the seas dry, they die in a matter of hours. Usually this news delights the local population. People, like hungry vultures, attack a helpless animal with cleaver, knives and saws. They cut the skin of the whale into even parts, and then carefully cut out pieces of meat from it.
Who is he the largest whale on Earth?
No wonder these animals are called rulers of the seas. Even the famous oceanologist researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau called one of his books on whales: "The mighty lords of the seas." Currently, a total of 92 species of these mammals live on Earth. The largest whale in the world is the blue, or blue whale. Its impressive dimensions truly excite the minds of mankind: this animal reaches 35 m in length. If a simple comparison is made, 30 elephants can easily fit on the back of a blue whale.
Who are the toothed whales?
Currently, these representatives of the order of cetaceans inhabit almost all the seas and oceans of the globe. The only exceptions are the polar regions. Toothed whales, or teeth, are a suborder of cetaceans. All its representatives have several rows of teeth on their jaws and are exclusively carnivores. The vast majority of these animals are inferior in size to the toothless cetaceans, which are represented by the largest whale on Earth - blue, or blue. The only toothed marine mammal that can at least somehow compete with them in size is the sperm whale. The remaining species are small or medium cetaceans.
A little taxonomy
Critters are represented mainly by sperm whales, dolphins and killer whales (large whale in black and white). Sperm whales feed on cephalopods, while dolphins feed mainly on fish. Octopuses and especially squids do not attract them. Orcas, by contrast, are the most dangerous representatives of this class of animals. No wonder they were called killer whales. Cephalopods and fish are almost not interested in them. Killer whales prefer to hunt fur seals and seals. Often they attack their relatives in packs of flocks, trying to snatch a soft and greasy tongue from them.
The largest toothed whale on Earth
This is a sperm whale. The origin of the name of this species of whales, most likely, has Portuguese roots. The fact is that the Portuguese word "cachola" in translation into Russian means a big head. The head of these whales is really huge, but more on that later. Sperm whale is the only representative of the sperm whale family. In general, these marine animals are herd mammals living in huge groups, the number of heads of which sometimes reaches several hundred. As mentioned above, the sperm whale is a suborder of toothed whales that swim quite quickly and reach speeds of up to 50 km / h.
Sperm whales, like all other types of whales, are excellent divers. It's hard to believe, but they dive to depths of up to 3000 m! Scientists do not accidentally call this figure. Once upon a time at this depth, a sperm whale was found, hopelessly entangled in deep-sea underwater cables. A thick layer of subcutaneous fat allows them to dive to such dangerous depths: it saves the sperm whale from hypothermia. They hunt on the seabed, searching for their favorite prey there - giant squids, but we will talk about this a little later.
Appearance and dimensions of the sperm whale
As has been said here many times, the sperm whale is the largest toothed whale that inhabits the seas and oceans of our planet. It is understandable, because adult males in length reach 23 m with a mass of 50 tons. Their females, in turn, do not exceed 15 m with a weight of 20 tons. Moreover, the sperm whale is one of the few representatives of the cetacean order, in which sexual dimorphism is pronounced. We are talking about the aforementioned sizes: the females of these whales are not only much smaller than males, but also differ in their physique, number of teeth, head shape, etc. A distinctive external feature of the sperm whale is a huge rectangular head, in which the so-called spermaceti sac is located.
A little bit about his teeth
Toothed whales, the photo of which is presented in this article, represent one of the two current suborders of cetaceans. The second suborder is represented by the so-called baleen whales, but they are not of interest to us in the framework of this article. As their name implies, there are teeth on the jaws of the teeth. And this is not surprising, because all whales are carnivores that feed on cephalopods, fish, and sometimes marine mammals. It is curious that sperm whales almost do not need teeth. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning them.
Sperm whales have up to 30 pairs of teeth in the oral cavity. One sperm whale tooth weighs up to 1 kg. The appropriate head structure allows these whales to actively suck in prey without the use of teeth. The special anatomical location of the lower jaw allows it to fall 90 degrees, which, in turn, allows sperm whales to pick up crayfish and crabs from the seabed. These giants do not need teeth even for chewing food. This is done for them by stones that sperm whales intentionally pick up from the bottom. They grind food in their stomachs.
What does the sperm whale eat?
Sperm whale (photo presented in the article) prefers to devour cephalopods (octopuses) and, of course, giant squids. The sizes of these squids vary from 15 to 20 m in length. The fish diet usually takes no more than 5% in the life of a sperm whale. To search for their favorite food, these whales dive to unknown depths of up to 3 km. Squids that live in the upper water layers are absolutely not interested in sperm whales as food. These animals feed exclusively at great depths. Scientists believe that this is due to the lack of food competitors there: the sperm whale is concentrated only on prey, and not on its sharing with other animals. Under water, the largest toothed whale can remain up to 1.5 hours!
How do sperm whales hunt?
Sperm whales hunt by ultrasonic echolocation. Some scientists attribute this to the fact that high-frequency sounds confuse giant mollusks, disorienting them in the surrounding space. An important role here is played by the same spermaceti sac, which we mentioned above. In this case, it acts as an acoustic lens. In addition, it provides the required level of buoyancy at one or another depth. The largest tooth-whale is considered a very dangerous animal. The wounded sperm whale shows iron endurance and unprecedented aggressiveness. That is why hunting for them is fraught with great risk. There are cases when angry animals killed whalers and even drowned their ships.
Reproduction of sperm whales
A large toothed whale reaches its sexual maturity by 5 years. Female sperm whales are ready for mating a little earlier - at 4 years old. These animals are polygamous creatures: males form whole harems with 12-15 females. During the mating period, they, like many other animals, behave very aggressively. Pregnancy lasts for 15-18 months. Their offspring appears at any time of the year, however, in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, many females give birth only in July-September. Usually one cub is born 4-5 m long and weighs about a ton. Immediately after birth, the female begins to feed the kitten.
Deadly battle
Zoologists call one of the most striking spectacles of the wild the deadly battles of sperm whales with giant squids. This explains the scars and marks from the suction cups, which literally dotted the largest toothed whale. In a deadly battle, squids defend themselves, leaving traces in the form of small depressed circles on the whale's head with a diameter of 25 cm. There is a known case when a half-dead squid weighing 200 kg was extracted from the sperm whale's stomach! It is curious that his tentacles protruded from the jaws of a toothed whale, sticking tightly to his rectangular and large head. The eternal confrontations of squid and sperm whales already go whole legends and tales. Here he is so warlike - this sperm whale! A photo of the deadly battle is presented below.
