Whales are amazing! They live their whole lives in water and have a lot of special qualities. Whales are social, air breathing mammals, they feed their babies with their own milk, and they take extraordinarily good care of their young and teach them life skills. Many of us believe whales are special; they certainly invoke a sense of wonder and a feeling of kinship. There is something almost other-worldly about them.
Sperm Whale
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Sperm Whale | NOAA Fisheries
It is the only living member of the genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family , along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia. The sperm whale is a pelagic mammal with a worldwide range, and will migrate seasonally for feeding and breeding. The females cooperate to protect and nurse their young. Females give birth every four to 20 years, and care for the calves for more than a decade.
Sperm whale
They also have the largest brain out of any animal known to exist. Female sperm whales on the other hand tend to be much smaller growing to lengths of 34 — 38 ft. The head of the whale contains an organ known as the spermaceti organ, hence its name, which was once believed to produce sperm, but has since been proven to serve another unknown use. Some researchers believe that the spermaceti organ assists the whale with buoyancy by allowing the whale to adjust the fluid balance and consistency within its head; after all the sperm whale is the deepest diving animal in the cetacean family. In comparison to the rest of its large block shaped head the lower jaw is long, narrow and filled with cone-shaped teeth that fit into sockets in the upper jaw.
They possess the largest brain in the animal kingdom and spend much of their lives in the light-starved depths of the oceans hunting prey. The mighty sperm whales look nothing like any other whale. For a start, they each have an enormous square-shaped head which accounts for around a third of their body length. They have stumpy dorsal fins and two relatively small pectoral fins on either side of their wrinkle-covered bodies.
