Podims are ancient marine inhabitants of the Earth. The fossil remains of toothy whales made it possible to determine the age of their ancestors twentyfive million years. Podimally, close to modern form in appearance and lifestyle, appeared on our planet 9-10 million years ago.
Kashalot is a mammal animal, the most huge of all representatives of toothy whales. The animal is considered the largest predator living in the ocean.
Description
Sea giants of sperm whales live in all the oceans of the world (but in the northern Arctic Ocean they are very rare). They do not like icy water and stay away from it. But there are sperm whales that have chosen the depths of the Bering Sea and the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean.
The sperm whale has a characteristic appearance. Its gigantic dimensions are surprising. The maximum body length is twenty-five meters, and the mass reaches 50-60 tons.
The huge head of the sperm whale occupies one third of the entire body length. There is an assumption that the name of the animal comes from the Portuguese word “Cachola”, which translates as “big head”.
Perminity never live separately. They are united in large herds, numbering from several hundred to thousands of animals. This allows you to take care of offspring, facilitates hunting and defense from enemies.
The skeleton of the sperm whale
Features of appearance
The appearance of the sperm whale is peculiar and interesting. The sperm whale has a truly gigantic size and mass:
A characteristic feature in the structure of the sperm whale is a huge head and, accordingly, proportional to it is a very large mouth. This enables the predator to swallow large marine inhabitants. One of the interesting facts includes the fact that the sperm whale is the only animal on Earth that can swallow a person.
The head department of the sperm whale is cumbersome. But the brain compared to the head has small sizes. Although it weighs about eight kilograms. The spongy tissue and fat occupies almost the entire cranial region.
The mouth is located in the lower part of the animal head. The sperm whale has the ability to open the mouth very widely with the help of the lower jaw, which is located perpendicular to the body. Here, in the lower jaw, there are 22-26 pairs of large teeth. The weight of one tooth is 2kg.
Spermacial bag of sperm whale
Above, above the mouth, there is a spermacial bag. It is almost 90% of the total crushing of the sperm whale. It has fat, muscles, fibrous tissue. There is also a special substance in this bag spermatzet. What it is? This is a substance similar to wax, which is formed from fat. It has the ability to harden when cooled by the body of the whale and transform into the liquid in case of increasing its temperature.
Puppet, thanks to a spermacial bag, can adjust the temperature of its body and blood circulation:
Another function of the spermacial bag is echolocation. He distributes the direction reaching sound waves to the whale.
The respiratory organ of the animal is very interesting: each nostril plays a certain role. A nostril shifted in the left side of the head is a working. When you exhale, the whale releases the air fountain from it. Another nostril located on the right side is equipped with a valve and a small cavity. In it, the whale inhales the air before diving into the water. But she does not let in the air.
Podger and man
In the sperm whale, the skin has a gray color. On the back it is dark color, and in the belly area it is much lighter, closer to white color. The entire body in the lower part is wrinkled. On the back and on the head, the skin is mostly smooth, only in the cervical region there are deep folds.
Life expectancy
Sperm warewells do not live for a very long time. The average life expectancy is about 40-50 years. The causes of the natural death of these animals are diseases such as stomach ulcers, bone tissue necrosis, myocardial infarction.
The habitat of the sperm whale
The sperm whale lives in the waters of the entire oceans. The exception is the polar areas. This giant whale is a thermophilic animal. Most of the sperm whale lives in tropical waters. With the onset of the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, whales migrate, expanding their range. At the end of autumn, they return to the equatorial part of the globe again.
Sperm whales do not swim around the shores. They are deepsea mammals. Therefore, are in those areas where the seabed has a depth of up to three hundred meters. They move through the waters of the oceans not only depending on the season, but also in search of food. They are interested in cephalopods and largesized squirrels. Barents and Okhotsk Seas are rich in sperm whale, so whole flocks of whales gather there. There are also a lot of them in the Pacific basin.
Podger diet
The ceremonial mollusks prevail in the diet of sperm whale. Podgy eats up to 40 different types of mollusks, but prefers to enjoy squid. A small part of the booty of the whale octopus.
Within 5-10% of the food consumed are fish. These are small sharks, slopes, katrans, saira, polish, perch.
During the hunt, sperm whale dives to a depth of 400 or more meters. It is there that mollusks and fish that they eat and there are no food competitors live. During feeding, the whale dives several times in an upright position, lifting the tail blades above the water surface.
To get enough, sperm whale, it must be consumed within one ton of food per day. He swallows all the food entirely, without chewing. Only if large individuals come across, can break them and eat in parts. When very large squids come across the sperm whale, they protect themselves and leave scars on the skin of the whale that appear from the suction cup.
Females of sperm whales are not as voracious as males. They practically do not eat fish and prefer cephalopods.
Sometimes unusual objects floating in the ocean and representing different garbage fall into the stomach of the sperm whale. This happens while swallowing a large volume of water.
Life and reproduction of offspring
The sperm whale can dive to a rather large depth (more than 1000 meters) and be under water a maximum of 2 hours. Among all mammals that live in water, sperm whale beats the diving records. He dives so deeply to get his food. The sperm whale is immersed in water for about forty minutes, then emerges and makes a break on the water surface.
Animals sleep very little. The duration of sleep is less than two hours a day. During sleep, the whales stick out part of the head on the surface of the water and are in a stationary state. It is interesting that when they sleep, both the hemispheres of the brain at once are practically completely disconnected.
Basically, sperm whales are engaged in food and hunt whole packs. They all drive their prey in a large dense group together. Then it’s easier for them to absorb it.
Males dive deeper and are in water for a long time, females are also able to dive to a depth of 1000 meters and be more than sixty minutes in the water thickness. But females have to patronize the cubs and dive with them, which makes it possible to dive to a greater depth.
Males of sperm whales seek to prove their right to be the first. Therefore, there are sometimes very cruel contractions between the males. Each male creates a whole harem near him, which consists of about 14-15 females.
The dream of sperm whales
The females, on the other hand, is intended to play the reproduction of offspring, feeding and the manifestation of caring for cubs:
The full independence of the cubs is acquired by 9-10 years. By this time, they have puberty, and they are able to reproduce offspring.
Population today
For a long time, the sperm whales were destroyed by people. As a result, there was a threat of complete extermination of this type of animal. Therefore, since 1985, a law prohibiting the craft of sperm whales was introduced. Currently, Japan only has a permit for limited gum mining for scientific purposes and research.
The measures taken allowed to maintain the population. There are no exact numbers about the number of sperm whalers in nature. But the population of sperm whales is considered vulnerable, since the growth of animals is scanty. The reason is a longterm thoroughbred cycle.
Natural enemies
Although nature endowed the sperm whale with a formidable appearance, he still has enemies-these are. They attack in groups mainly on females and cubs. But if the Sama sperm whales receive a signal about the attack, then they rush to defend their relatives and most often deprive the booty of prey.
Killer the enemy of the sperm whale
The damage to the health of the sperm whale can be caused: endoparasites, funnel crust-panella, and luggage crayfish.
Protection of sperm whales
Today, sperm whale is a guarded animal. Many factors have an adverse effect on the number of sperm whales in the natural environment.
International experts have developed security programs to preserve the number of sperm whalers. The sperm whale is listed in the Red Book of Eurasia and in the environmental lists of almost all countries of the world.
It’s going to be finish of mine day, however before end I am reading this wonderful paragraph to improve
my knowledge.