Largest toothed whale. Whale size

Who is the largest animal on Earth? Probably, many of us will think that this is an elephant. In principle, there is some truth here. The elephant is the largest animal living on land. But life, as is known, is not limited to one land, especially since 75% of the entire surface of the earth is occupied by the seas and oceans. The water form of life is a unique macro world with its magnificent and in most cases poorly studied organisms. The largest animal in the world lives not on land, but in the ocean. His name is a whale. In turn, the biggest 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 reproduction of the largest toothed whale.

The lords of the boundless seas

To begin with, it should be determined that whales are mammals, and not fish, as many people think. They breathe not with gills, like fish, but with lungs. A whale can not remain under water all his life! From time to time, it is extremely necessary for these animals to rise to the surface of the water to breathe in a breath of fresh air. This is their vital need. Since all cetaceans are mammalian animals, they give birth to already formed live cubs and feed them with milk. Whale milk is considered much more nutritious than cow's milk. This allows the kittens to grow quite quickly.

The paradox of these powerful rulers of the seas is that, like mammals, they are completely helpless and powerless on land. On the ground, not a single whale can move a meter! These animals will simply not be able to overcome their own mass. Unfortunately, when drying the seas, they perish in a matter of hours. Usually this news is pleasing to the local population. People, like hungry vultures, attack a helpless animal with knifes, knives and saws. They cut the skin of the whale on equal parts, after which carefully cut out pieces of meat.

Who is he - the largest whale on Earth?

No wonder these animals are called lords of the seas. Even the famous oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau called one of his books on whales: "The mighty rulers of the seas." Currently, 92 species of these mammals live on the Earth. The largest whale in the world is a blue, or blue whale. His impressive size really disturbs the minds of mankind: this animal reaches 35 m in length. If you make a simple comparison, then on the back of a blue whale, 30 elephants easily fit.

Who are toothed whales?

Currently, these representatives of the order of cetaceans live in almost all the seas and oceans of the globe. The only exceptions are the polar regions. Toothed whales, or critters, are a suborder of cetacean mammals. All its representatives have on their jaws several rows of teeth and are exclusively carnivorous animals. The absolute majority of these animals in their size are inferior to toothless cetaceans, whose representative is the largest whale on Earth - blue, or blue. The only morbid sea mammal that can somehow compete with them in its size is the sperm whale. The remaining species are small or medium cetaceans.

A bit of systematics

Critters are represented mainly by sperm whales, dolphins and killer whales (a large whale of black and white color). Sperm whales feed on cephalopods, and dolphins feed mainly on fish. Octopuses and especially squids do not attract them. Orcas, on the contrary, are the most dangerous representatives of this class of animals. It's not for nothing that they were called whalers-killers. Cephalopod mollusks and fish are almost not interested. Killer whales prefer to hunt fur seals and seals. Often they attack whole groups with their own kind, trying to wrest their soft and fat tongue from them.

The largest toothed whale on Earth

It's a sperm whale. The origin of the name of this species of whale, most likely, has Portuguese roots. The fact is that the Portuguese word "cachola" in translation into Russian means a large head. The head of these whales is really huge, but more about that later. Sperm whale is the only representative of the family of sperm whales. In general, these marine animals are herd mammals, living in huge groups, whose number of heads sometimes reaches several hundred. As already mentioned above, the sperm whale is a suborder of toothed whales, which swim fairly quickly and develop speeds of up to 50 km / h.

Sperm whales, like all other whale species, are excellent divers. It's hard to believe, but they dive to a depth of 3000 m! Scientists do not accidentally call this figure. Once it was at such a depth that a sperm whale was discovered, hopelessly entangled in deep-sea submarine cables. Diving into such dangerous depths allows them a thick layer of subcutaneous fat: it saves the sperm whale from hypothermia. On the seabed, they hunt, seeking out their favorite prey - giant squid, but we'll talk about this a little later.

Appearance and size of sperm whale

As has been repeatedly mentioned here, 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 order of cetaceans, in which sexual dimorphism is pronounced. These are the above-mentioned sizes: the females of these whales are not only significantly smaller than males, but differ from them in physique, the number of teeth, the shape of the head, and so on. A distinctive external feature of the sperm whale is a huge rectangular head, in which there is a so-called spermacetal sack.

A little bit about his teeth

Toothed whales, whose photos are presented in this article, represent one of the two current suborders of cetaceans. The second suborder is represented by so-called baleen whales, but they do not interest us in the framework of this article. As one can understand from their name, teeth have teeth on the jaws of the tooth. And this is not surprising, because all the whales are carnivorous animals that feed on cephalopods, fish, and sometimes marine mammals. Curiously, the sperm whale does not need teeth. Nevertheless, they are worth mentioning.

Sperm whales have up to 30 pairs of teeth in the oral cavity. One tooth of the sperm whale weighs up to 1 kg. The appropriate head structure allows these whales to actively suck prey without the use of teeth. The special anatomical position of the lower jaw allows it to descend to 90 degrees, which in turn allows sperm whales to pick crayfish and crab from the seabed. Teeth are not needed by these giants, even for chewing food. This is for them make stones, which sperm whales deliberately 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 squid. The sizes of these squids vary from 15 to 20 m in length. Fish diet usually takes in the life of a sperm whale less than 5%. To search for your favorite food, these whales make dives to uncharted depths of up to 3 km. Squid, living in the upper water layers, absolutely do not interest sperm whales as food. These animals eat 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 are hunting with ultrasound echolocation. Some scientists attribute this to the fact that high-frequency sounds lead giant shellfish to confusion, disorienting them in the surrounding space. An important role here is played by the same spermacetal bag, which we mentioned above. In this case, it acts as an acoustic lens. In addition, this provides the required level of buoyancy at some depth. The largest whale-whale is considered a very dangerous animal. The wounded sperm whale has an iron endurance and unprecedented aggression. That is why hunting for them involves a lot of risk. There are cases when furious animals killed whaling sailors and even sank their ships.

Reproduction of sperm whales

A large whale from the family of the toothy reaches its sexual maturity by the age of five. Female sperm whales ready for mating a little earlier - at 4 years. 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 appear 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 in a length of 4-5 m and weighs about a ton. Immediately after birth, the female begins to feed the whale.

Deadly fight

Zoologists call one of the most spectacular wildlife spectacles the death fights of sperm whales with giant squid. This explains the scars and traces of the suckers, which literally dotted the largest toothed whale. In a deadly battle, the squid is protected, leaving traces on the head of the whale in the form of small depressed circles with a diameter of 25 cm. A case is known when a half-dead squid weighing 200 kg was extracted from the stomach of a sperm whale! Curiously, his tentacles protruded from the jaws of a toothed whale, firmly adhering to its rectangular and large head. On the age-old confrontations of squids and sperm whales, there are already legends and tales. That's how he is warlike - this sperm whale! Photo of the deadly battle is presented below.

From the history of the ancestors of cetaceans

According to some paleontologists, about 70 million years ago, distant ancestors of modern whales lived on land. They were covered with wool and instead of fins they had limbs. After a while they moved to shallow water. There they were very comfortable to escape from enemies and seek food. Such a way of life was liked by these animals, and in a few million years they completely went into the water. The wool completely disappeared from their torso, and the forelegs transformed into fins. The tail also took the form necessary for a comfortable swim in the water.

Of course, such metamorphoses with the ancestors of the current cetaceans did not occur immediately, but for several million years.