Sperm whales are among the most cosmopolitan species. They prefer ice-free waters over deep. Although both sexes range through temperate and tropical oceans and seas, only adult males populate higher latitudes. Among several regions, such as along coastal waters of southern Australia, sperm whales have been considered to be locally extinct. They are relatively abundant from the poles to the equator and are found in all the oceans. They inhabit the Mediterranean Sea, but not the Black Sea, while their presence in the Red Sea is uncertain. The shallow entrances to both the Black Sea and the Red Sea may account for their absence.
Distribution
Sperm whale
Sperm whale | Distribution
They are relatively abundant from the poles to the equator and are found in all the oceans. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. They are relatively abundant from the poles to the equator and are found in all the oceans. They inhabit the Mediterranean Sea, but not the Black Sea, while their presence in the Red Sea is uncertain They are found in all the oceans - close to continental shelves and canyons
what ocean zone does the sperm whale live in
user
Sperm whales are among the most cosmopolitan species. They prefer ice-free waters over deep. Although both sexes range through temperate and tropical oceans and seas, only adult males populate higher latitudes. Among several regions, such as along coastal waters of southern Australia, sperm whales have been considered to be locally extinct. They are relatively abundant from the poles to the equator and are found in all the oceans. They inhabit the Mediterranean Sea, but not the Black Sea, while their presence in the Red Sea is uncertain. The shallow entrances to both the Black Sea and the Red Sea may account for their absence.
Sperm whale | Distribution
Pygmy sperm whales are found throughout the tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and occasionally among colder waters such as off Russia. However, they are rarely sighted at sea, so most data come from stranded animals - making a precise range and migration map difficult. They are believed to prefer off-shore waters, and are most frequently sighted in waters ranging from in depth, especially where upwelling water produces local concentrations of zooplankton and animal prey. Their status is usually described as rare, but occasional patches of higher-density strandings suggest they might be more common than previously estimated.
Pygmy sperm whale | Population and distribution
The dwarf sperm whale ranges throughout tropical and temperate oceans of the world and inhabits the continental shelf and slope area. It seems to prefer warmer waters than the pygmy sperm whale. The dwarf sperm whale is one of the most commonly beached deep-diving whales in the world, though rarely seen at sea, and likewise, most information about the whale comes from examining beached individuals. Diving depth may vary from place to place: a study in the Bahamas placed average depth at around , whereas a study in the deeper waters of Hawaii placed it at around . In the West Pacific, its recorded range spans from Japan to Tasmania and New Zealand, and in the East Pacific from British Columbia to central Chile.
Dwarf sperm whale | Population and distribution
The Black Sea's lower layers are also anoxic and contain high concentrations of sulphur compounds such as hydrogen sulphide. The first ever sighting in Pakistan was made in 2017. The first ever record on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula (Yellow Sea) was made in 2005. followed by one on Ganghwa Island in 2009. Populations are denser close to continental shelves and canyons. Sperm whales are usually found in deep, off-shore waters, but may be seen closer to shore, in areas where the continental shelf is small and drops quickly to depths of . Coastal areas with significant sperm whale populations include the Azores and Dominica.
Sperm whale | Distribution
It is listed on Appendix II as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements. It is also covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MOU).
Sperm whale | Current conservation status
The total population is unknown. Fossils identified as belonging to "K. breviceps" have been recovered from Miocene deposits in Italy, Japan, and southern Africa.
Pygmy sperm whale | Population and distribution
Lowering the temperature increases the density to have it act as a weight for deep-sea diving, and raising the temperature decreases the density to have it pull the whale to the surface.
Livyatan | Spermaceti organ
In the Indian Ocean, the whale is reported from Oman, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia around Timor, western Australia and South Africa. In the West Atlantic, it has been recorded from Virginia to southern Brazil, and in the East Atlantic from Italy in the Mediterranean Sea to South Africa. No global population estimation has been made. Population counts have been taken over certain areas, though given the difficulty to distinguish the dwarf sperm whale from the pygmy sperm whale, the overall estimate represents the total number of both species. In the North Atlantic, they are estimated at around 3,785 individuals; in the East Pacific, around 11,200 individuals.
Dwarf sperm whale | Population and distribution
The sperm whale or cachalot ("Physeter macrocephalus") is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. 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. Females and young males live together in groups, while mature males (bulls) live solitary lives outside of the mating season. The females cooperate to protect and nurse their young.
Sperm whale | Introduction
Sperm whales consist the largest and smallest odontocetes, and spend a large portion of their life hunting squid. "P. macrocephalus" spends most of its life in search of squid in the depths; these animals do not require any degree of light at all, in fact, blind sperm whales have been caught in perfect health. The behaviour of Kogiids remains largely unknown, but, due to their small lungs, they are thought to hunt in the photic zone. Ziphiids consist of 22 species of beaked whale. These vary from size, to coloration, to distribution, but they all share a similar hunting style.
Whale | Odontocetes
The sperm whale respiratory system has adapted to cope with drastic pressure changes when diving. The flexible ribcage allows lung collapse, reducing nitrogen intake, and metabolism can decrease to conserve oxygen. Between dives, the sperm whale surfaces to breathe for about eight minutes before diving again. Odontoceti (toothed whales) breathe air at the surface through a single, S-shaped blowhole, which is extremely skewed to the left. Sperm whales spout (breathe) 3–5 times per minute at rest, increasing to 6–7 times per minute after a dive. The blow is a noisy, single stream that rises up to or more above the surface and points forward and left at a 45° angle.
Sperm whale | Biological systems
While this may be correct for the plotopterids, for pelagornithids it is not all too likely for two reasons: First, the Pelagornithidae continued to thrive for 10 million years after modern-type baleen whales evolved, and in the Middle Miocene "Pelagornis" coexisted with "Aglaocetus" and Harrison's whale ("Eobalaenoptera harrisoni") in the Atlantic off the Eastern Seaboard, while the Pacific "Osteodontornis" inhabited the same seas as "Balaenula" and "Morenocetus"; the ancestral smallish sperm whale genus "Aulophyseter" (and/or "Orycterocetus") occurred in both Northern Hemisphere oceans at that time, while the mid-sized sperm whale "Brygmophyseter" roamed the North Pacific. As regards Miocene pinnipeds, a diversity of ancient walruses and ancestral fur seals like "Thalassoleon" inhabited the north-east, while the ancient leopard seal "Acrophoca" is a remarkable species known from the south-east Pacific.
Pelagornithidae | Ecology and extinction
Adult males who are not breeding live solitary lives, whereas females and juvenile males live together in groups. The main driving force for the sexual segregation of adult sperm whales is scramble competition for mesopelagic squid. Females and their young remain in groups, while mature males leave their "natal unit" somewhere between 4 and 21 years of age. Mature males sometimes form loose bachelor groups with other males of similar age and size. As males grow older, they typically live solitary lives. Mature males have beached themselves together, suggesting a degree of cooperation which is not yet fully understood. The whales rarely, if ever, leave their group.
Sperm whale | Relations within the species
Sperm whales have 21 pairs of chromosomes (2n=42). The genome of live whales can be examined by recovering shed skin.
Sperm whale | Genetics
However, more recent studies, based on various combinations of comparative anatomy and molecular phylogenetics, criticised Milinkovitch's analysis on technical grounds and reaffirmed that the Odontoceti are monophyletic. These analyses also confirm that there was a rapid evolutionary radiation (diversification) of the Physeteroidea in the Miocene period. The Kogiidae (dwarf and pygmy sperm whales) diverged from the Physeteridae (true sperm whales) at least .
Sperm whale | Phylogeny
No global population estimate has been made, and so its conservation status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is least concern.
Dwarf sperm whale | Introduction
A continuous fat-filled canal transmits received sounds to the inner ear. The source of the air forced through the phonic lips is the right nasal passage. While the left nasal passage opens to the blow hole, the right nasal passage has evolved to supply air to the phonic lips. It is thought that the nostrils of the land-based ancestor of the sperm whale migrated through evolution to their current functions, the left nostril becoming the blowhole and the right nostril becoming the phonic lips. Air that passes through the phonic lips passes into the distal sac, then back down through the left nasal passage.
Sperm whale | Mechanism
On average, females and juveniles blow every 12.5 seconds before dives, while large males blow every 17.5 seconds before dives. A sperm whale killed south of Durban, South Africa, after a 1-hour, 50-minute dive was found with two dogfish (Scymnodon sp.), usually found at the sea floor, in its belly. The sperm whale has the longest intestinal system in the world, exceeding 300 m in larger specimens. Similar to ruminants the sperm whale has a four-chambered stomach. The first secretes no gastric juices and has very thick muscular walls to crush the food (since whales cannot chew) and resist the claw and sucker attacks of swallowed squid.
Sperm whale | Biological systems
The species is further included in the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia (Western African Aquatic Mammals MoU), and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MoU).
Dwarf sperm whale | Relationship with humans
Sperm whales can live 70 years or more.
Sperm whale | Introduction
Remaining sperm whale populations are large enough so that the species' conservation status is vulnerable, rather than endangered. However, the recovery from the whaling years is a slow process, particularly in the South Pacific, where the toll on males of breeding age was severe.
Toothed whale | Sperm whaling
The oxygenated blood can be directed towards only the brain and other essential organs when oxygen levels deplete. The spermaceti organ may also play a role by adjusting buoyancy (see below). The arterial retia mirabilia are extraordinarily well-developed. The complex arterial retia mirabilia of the sperm whale are more extensive and larger than those of any other cetacean.
Sperm whale | Biological systems
It is distinguished from the other raptorial sperm whales by the basin on the skull, and how it spans the entire length of the snout. The spermaceti organ, contained in that basin, is thought to have been used in echolocation and communication, or for ramming prey and other sperm whales. The whale may have interacted with the large extinct shark megalodon ("Otodus megalodon"), competing with it for a similar food source. Its extinction was likely caused by a cooling event at the end of the Miocene which resulted in a drop in food populations. The formation where the whale has been found has also preserved a large assemblage of marine life, such as sharks and marine mammals.
Livyatan | Introduction
After sperm whale populations declined significantly, the species was given full protection by the International Whaling Commission in 1985. Hunting of sperm whales by Japan in the northern Pacific Ocean continued until 1988.
Sperm whaling | 20th century
Remaining sperm whale populations are large enough so that the species' conservation status is vulnerable, rather than endangered. However, the recovery from the whaling years is a slow process, particularly in the South Pacific, where the toll on males of a breeding age was severe.
Sperm whaling | Effect on sperm whale population
Sperm whales can live 70 years or more. They are a prime example of a species that has been K-selected, meaning their reproductive strategy is associated with stable environmental conditions and comprises a low birth rate, significant parental aid to offspring, slow maturation, and high longevity. How they choose mates has not been definitively determined. Males will fight with each other over females, and males will mate with multiple females, making them polygynous, but they do not dominate the group as in a harem. Males do not provide paternal care to their offspring. Females become fertile at around 9 years of age.
Sperm whale | Life cycle
There are eight episodes in the series. The marine experts carry out pioneering science on the 20-metre-long sperm whale. Why are parts of the Southern Ocean warming twice as fast as the rest of Earth's oceans?
Oceans (TV series) | Episodes/Locations
Southern right and sperm whales were most severely hunted among these, hence the area was called the Middle Ground by whalers. These two were likely once seasonal residents around the island, where right whales prefer sheltered, very shallow bays, while sperm whales mainly inhabit deep waters.
Lord Howe Island | Marine life
Macroraptorials probably competed with the extinct giant shark megalodon for the same food sources. In sperm whales, the supracranial basin holds the spermaceti organ, a series of oil and wax reservoirs which aids in echolocation. Speculatively, the organ may also serve a secondary function, such as vocalizing, acoustic stunning of prey, head-butting between males, ramming into prey, or buoyancy control by increasing or decreasing the temperature of the wax to change the density and weight.
Macroraptorial sperm whale | Paleobiology
It occurs predominantly in deep water, occurring most commonly over the continental slope, in basins situated between banks, or submarine canyon areas. In the North Pacific, it ranges from 20°N to 23°N latitude in the winter, and from 35°N to 50°N latitude in the summer. Approximately 75% of the North Pacific population lives east of the International Date Line, but there is little information regarding the North Pacific distribution. , the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service estimated that the eastern North Pacific population stood at 374 whales. Two whales tagged in deep waters off California were later recaptured off Washington and British Columbia, revealing a possible link between these areas, but the lack of other tag recovery data makes these two cases inconclusive.
Sei whale | Range and migration
Orycteocetus is an extinct genus of sperm whale from the Miocene of the northern Atlantic Ocean.
Orycterocetus | Introduction
Fossils conclusively identified as "L. melvillei" have been found in Peru and Chile. However, additional isolated large sperm whale teeth from other locations including Australia, Argentina, and South Africa have been identified as a species or possible close relative of "Livyatan". On the basis of these fossils, it was likely that the distribution of "Livyatan" was widespread but restricted to the Southern Hemisphere. The warmer waters around the equator have been known to be a climatic barrier for numerous cetaceans since Neogene times, and a possible hypothesis is that "Livyatan" may have been among the cetaceans unable to cross the equatorial barrier.
Livyatan | Palaeoecology
Other threats include ingestion of marine debris, ocean noise, and chemical pollution. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) regards the sperm whale as being "vulnerable". The species is listed as endangered on the United States Endangered Species Act. Sperm whales are listed on Appendix I and Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). It is listed on Appendix I as this species has been categorized as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant proportion of their range and CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them.
Sperm whale | Current conservation status
Sperm whaling involved the above-named ships searching for sperm whales on certain "grounds," or areas where sperm whales were likely to be found, such as the "Western" Ground in the mid-North Atlantic or the "Offshore" Ground in the latitudes of 5–10 degrees south and 105–125 degrees west longitude. The whales were spotted from one of the several look-outs stationed at the mast-heads. When a whale was found, whaleboats would be lowered and a harpoon attached to a long line would be thrown into it. The whale would then drag the boats (the famous "Nantucket sleighride") until it was too tired to resist, at which point the crew would lance it to death.
Sperm whaling | 19th century
These evolutionary modifications make the spine more flexible but weaker than the spines of terrestrial vertebrates. Like that of other toothed whales, the skull of the sperm whale is asymmetrical so as to aid echolocation. Sound waves that strike the whale from different directions will not be channeled in the same way. Within the basin of the cranium, the openings of the bony narial tubes (from which the nasal passages spring) are skewed towards the left side of the skull.
Sperm whale | Skeleton
The name stems . At this depth, the ocean is pitch black, apart from occasional bioluminescent organisms, such as anglerfish. No living plant exists here. Most animals living here survive by consuming the detritus falling from the zones above, which is known as "marine snow", or, like the marine hatchetfish, by preying on other inhabitants of this zone. Other examples of this zone's inhabitants are giant squid, smaller squids and the grimpoteuthis or "dumbo octopus". The giant squid is hunted here by deep-diving sperm whales.
Pelagic zone | Bathypelagic (midnight)
The three "Eubalaena" species inhabit three distinct areas of the globe: the North Atlantic in the western Atlantic Ocean, the North Pacific in a band from Japan to Alaska and all areas of the Southern Ocean. The whales can only cope with the moderate temperatures found between 20 and 60 degrees in latitude. The warm equatorial waters form a barrier that prevents mixing between the northern and southern groups with minor exclusions. Although the southern species in particular must travel across open ocean to reach its feeding grounds, the species is not considered to be pelagic. In general, they prefer to stay close to peninsulas and bays and on continental shelves, as these areas offer greater shelter and an abundance of their preferred foods.
Right whale | Range and habitat
Sperm whales are not the easiest of whales to watch, due to their long dive times and ability to travel long distances underwater. However, due to the distinctive look and large size of the whale, watching is increasingly popular. Sperm whale watchers often use hydrophones to listen to the clicks of the whales and locate them before they surface. Popular locations for sperm whale watching include the town of Kaikoura on New Zealand's South Island, Andenes and Tromsø in Arctic Norway; as well as the Azores, where the continental shelf is so narrow that whales can be observed from the shore, and Dominica where a long-term scientific research program, The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, has been in operation since 2005.
Sperm whale | Watching sperm whales
This recycling of air allows the whale to continuously generate clicks for as long as it is submerged.
Sperm whale | Mechanism
There remain only much smaller concentrations in the Eastern North Pacific (1,647), Central North Pacific (63–133), North Atlantic (1,000–2,000), Antarctic (2,280), New Zealand (718), Northern Indian Ocean (270) and Chile (570-760).
Blue whale | Introduction
The sperm whale belongs to the order Cetartiodactyla, the order containing all cetaceans and even-toed ungulates. It is a member of the unranked clade Cetacea, with all the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and further classified into Odontoceti, containing all the toothed whales and dolphins. It is the sole extant species of its genus, "Physeter", in the family Physeteridae. Two species of the related extant genus "Kogia", the pygmy sperm whale "Kogia breviceps" and the dwarf sperm whale "K. sima", are placed either in this family or in the family Kogiidae. In some taxonomic schemes the families Kogiidae and Physeteridae are combined as the superfamily Physeteroidea (see the separate entry on the sperm whale family).
Sperm whale | Taxonomy
The olfactory system is reduced, suggesting that the sperm whale has a poor sense of taste and smell. By contrast, the auditory system is enlarged. The pyramidal tract is poorly developed, reflecting the reduction of its limbs.
Sperm whale | Brain
Fossil sperm whales from the Middle Miocene include "Aulophyseter", "Idiorophus" and "Orycterocetus", all of which were found on the West Coast of the United States, and "Scaldicetus", found in Europe and Japan. "Orycterocetus" fossils have also been found in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, in addition to the west coast of the United States. "Placoziphius", found in Europe, and "Acrophyseter", from Peru, are dated to the late Miocene. Fossil sperm whales differ from modern sperm whales in tooth count and the shape of the face and jaws. For example, "Scaldicetus" had a tapered rostrum. Genera from the Oligocene and early and middle Miocene, with the possible exception of "Aulophyseter", had teeth in their upper jaws.
Sperm whale | Fossil record
For macroraptorial sperm whales, the presence of large body size along with large tooth size suggests that body size was an adaptation to hunting bigger prey, notably other marine mammals, as opposed to the modern sperm whale where size is possibly an adaptation to deep diving. The Langhian is particularly rich in sperm whale diversity, with "Albicetus", "Brygmophyseter", and "Aulophyseter" contemporaneously inhabiting the North Pacific. It is possible these sperm whales exhibited niche partitioning to avoid directly competing for food.
Albicetus | Paleoecology
Sperm whales have been shown to increase the levels of primary production and carbon export to the deep ocean by depositing iron-rich faeces into surface waters of the Southern Ocean. The faeces causes phytoplankton to grow and take up carbon. The phytoplankton nourish krill. Reducing the abundance of sperm whales in the Southern Ocean, whaling resulted in an extra 2 million tonnes of carbon remaining in the atmosphere each year.
Ocean fertilization | Impact on fisheries
Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have never been observed by humans; however, white scars are believed to be caused by the large squid. One study published in 2010 collected evidence that suggests that female sperm whales may collaborate when hunting Humboldt squid. Tagging studies have shown that sperm whales hunt upside down at the bottom of their deep dives. It is suggested that the whales can see the squid silhouetted above them against the dim surface light. An older study, examining whales captured by the New Zealand whaling fleet in the Cook Strait region, found a 1.69:1 ratio of squid to fish by weight.
Sperm whale | Diet
"B. brydei" occurs in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans between the 40th parallels of latitude, preferring highly productive, tropical, subtropical, and warm, temperate waters of . In the North Pacific, they occur as far north as Honshu to the west and southern California in the east, with vagrants reported as far north as Washington in the United States. A resident population is found in the Gulf of California and they occur throughout the eastern tropical Pacific, including Peru and Ecuador, where they are absent from July to September. They have also been reported in an upwelling area off Chile between 35° and 37°S.
Bryde's whale | "B. brydei"
The family Ziphiidae is one of the most widespread families of cetaceans, ranging from the ice edges at both the north and south poles, to the equator in all the oceans. Specific ranges vary greatly by species, though beaked whales typically inhabit offshore waters that are at least 300 m deep. Beaked whales are known to congregate in deep waters off the edge of continental shelves, and bottom features, such as seamounts, canyons, escarpments, and oceanic islands, including the Azores and the Canary Islands, and even off the coasts of Hawaii.
Beaked whale | Range and habitat
This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off Easter Island.
Sinezona zimmeri | Distribution
The right nasal passage was small and was asymmetrical with the left nasal passage, like in the modern sperm whale. Characteristic of sperm whales, it had a deep basin on the top of its skull, known as the supracranial basin. Like in the modern sperm whale, this basin probably held the spermaceti organ, and so the whale had biosonar capabilities. The nuchal crest which is the part of the whale skull which projects upwards on the back end of the skull, behind the supracranial basin, was low and broad. Similar to modern-day toothed whales, but unlike in the modern sperm whale, the shoulder blades were thicker than they were taller.
Brygmophyseter | Description
In 1985, the International Whaling Commission ended sperm whaling. The pygmy sperm whale is covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS). The species is further included in the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia (Western African Aquatic Mammals MoU) and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MoU).
Pygmy sperm whale | Conservation
The northern boundary of the sanctuary follows the 40°S parallel of latitude except in the Indian Ocean sector where it joins the southern boundary of the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary at 55°S, and around South America and into the South Pacific where the boundary is at 60°S.
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary | Area
In oceanic islands and offshore waters other than the above-mentioned areas, very little about the presence and recovery status of southern right whales is known. Right whales' historical ranges were much greater than today as whales were known to occur in lower latitude areas such as around Pacific Islands during the whaling era such as catches off Kiribati, and also frequented lower latitudes of the central Indian Ocean. It is unclear whether right whales have historically or currently distributed among parts of hemisphere lacking great land masses and reached far more pelagic islands such as Alejandro Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe Islands, Hanga Roa, Pitcairn, Galapagos Islands, and the Easter Island.
Southern right whale | Other
This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the Strait of Magellan
Nassarius gayii | Distribution
The sperm whale characteristically has a large, squarish head one-third the length of its body; the blowhole is slightly to the left hand side; the skin is usually wrinkled; and it has no teeth on the upper jaw.
List of cetaceans | Family Physeteridae: sperm whale
The total number of sperm whales in the world is unknown, but is thought to be in the hundreds of thousands. The conservation outlook is brighter than for many other whales. Commercial whaling has ceased, and the species is protected almost worldwide, though records indicate that in the 11-year period starting from 2000, Japan has caught 51 sperm whales. Fishermen do not target the creatures sperm whales eat, but long-line fishing operations in the Gulf of Alaska have complained about sperm whales stealing fish from their lines. Currently, entanglement in fishing nets and collisions with ships represent the greatest threats to the sperm whale population.
Sperm whale | Current conservation status
Analyzing the teeth is the preferred method for determining a whale's age. Like the age-rings in a tree, the teeth build distinct layers of cementum and dentine as they grow.
Sperm whale | Jaws and teeth
In 1878, naturalist James Hector synonymized the dwarf sperm whale with the pygmy sperm whales as "K. breviceps". No distinction was made by most authors until mammalogist Dale Rice in his 1998 review of marine mammal taxonomy citing the works of Dr. Teizo Ogawa from 1936, researcher Munesato Yamada from 1954, zoologist Charles Handley from 1966, and mammalogist Graham James Berry Ross from 1979. Genetic testing in 2006 suggests that "K. sima" may actually represent two species, one in the Atlantic and one in the Indo-Pacific region. The Cape of Good Hope around South Africa may mark the barrier between these two populations.
Dwarf sperm whale | Taxonomy
According to other "Eubalaena" species' seasonal distribution, some proportions of Pacific right whales could winter in colder waters, and congregation areas could also be restricted into particular harbors or straits of particular oceanic islands. It could be also said that wintering distributions of "E. japonica" could have extended further south to regions near the Equator line, according to the historical distributions of right whales in South Pacific that a population existed to winter on pelagic waters on lower latitude which is comparable to latitudes of Diego Garcia, Egmont Islands, and Great Chagos Bank, or even crossing the line on occasions where "E.
North Pacific right whale | Western North Pacific
More typical dives are around and 35 minutes in duration. Myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle tissue, is much more abundant than in terrestrial animals. The blood has a high density of red blood cells, which contain oxygen-carrying haemoglobin. The oxygenated blood can be directed towards only the brain and other essential organs when oxygen levels deplete. The spermaceti organ may also play a role by adjusting buoyancy. The arterial retia mirabilia are extraordinarily well-developed. The complex arterial retia mirabilia of the sperm whale are more extensive and larger than those of any other cetacean.
Physiology of underwater diving | Sperm whale
The spermaceti at the core of the organ has a higher wax content than the outer areas. The speed of sound in spermaceti is 2,684 m/s (at 40 kHz, 36 °C), making it nearly twice as fast as in the oil in a dolphin's melon. Below the spermaceti organ lies the "junk" which consists of compartments of spermaceti separated by cartilage. It is analogous to the melon found in other toothed whales. The structure of the junk redistributes physical stress across the skull and may have evolved to protect the head during ramming.
Sperm whale | Spermaceti organ and melon
Because the oceans are so large, it is very difficult to accurately gauge whale population sizes. Approximate figures:
Right whale | Range and habitat
The sperm whale ("Physeter macrocephalus") is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. 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 respiratory system has adapted to cope with drastic pressure changes when diving. The flexible ribcage allows lung collapse, reducing nitrogen intake, and metabolism can decrease to conserve oxygen. Between dives, the sperm whale surfaces to breathe for about eight minutes before diving again. Odontoceti (toothed whales) breathe air at the surface through a single, S-shaped blowhole, which is extremely skewed to the left.
Physiology of underwater diving | Sperm whale
North Atlantic fin whales are defined by the International Whaling Commission to exist in one of seven discrete population zones: Nova Scotia-New England, Newfoundland-Labrador, western Greenland, eastern Greenland-Iceland, North Norway, West Norway-Faroe Islands, and Ireland-Spain-United Kingdom-Portugal. Results of mark-and-recapture surveys have indicated that some movement occurs across the boundaries of these zones, suggesting that they are not entirely discrete and that some immigration and emigration does occur. Sigurjónsson estimated in 1995 that total pre-exploitation population size in the entire North Atlantic ranged between 50,000 and 100,000 animals, but his research is criticized for lack of supporting data and an explanation of his reasoning.
Fin whale | North Atlantic
Using their large and deeply rooted teeth, wide-opening jaws, and great size, they likely fed on a variety of sea life, including fish, cephalopods, seals, and small whales and dolphins, occupying a niche similar to the modern day killer whale ("Orcinus orca"). In fact, "Zygophyseter" is known colloquially as the "killer sperm whale" in reference to this. Likewise, they may have employed a similar hunting strategy of pursuing prey to tire it out before eventually drowning it. However, given their size, they probably did not need to hunt in groups. "Livyatan" probably targeted medium-sized whales ranging in size from .
Macroraptorial sperm whale | Paleobiology
Thus, the hypothesis that the spermaceti organ is an adaptation aiding in echolocation is generally the best accepted one. Under this hypothesis, the spermaceti organ assists in echolocation for the purpose of foraging activity during deep dives, allowing the whale to manipulate the directionality and power of output sound waves for improved sensory perception of its surroundings and increased ability to actively capture prey.
Spermaceti organ | Introduction
For some time researchers have been aware that pods of sperm whales may sleep for short periods, assuming a vertical position with their heads just below or at the surface. A 2008 study published in "Current Biology" recorded evidence that whales may sleep with both sides of the brain. It appears that some whales may fall into a deep sleep for about 7 percent of the time, most often between 6 p.m. and midnight.
Sperm whale | Sleeping
Like in other sperm whales, the blowhole was slanted towards the left side of the animal, and it may have lacked a right nasal passage. The falciform process on the squamosal bone was large and ventrally facing; as opposed to the ones in the Kogiidae ("Kogia" and "Praekogia") which are either reduced or absent. These may have been reduced in kogiids due to adaptations to deep-sea diving. Like in modern sperm whales, "Zygophyseter" had a very large basin above the braincase, known as the supracranial basin, which probably housed the spermaceti organ and the melon. These are used in the generation and focusing of sound for biosonar in the modern sperm whale, indicating "Zygophyseter" had some mechanisms for biosonar; that is to say this animal could have used echolocation.
Zygophyseter | Skull
Sperm whales have been shown to increase the levels of primary production and carbon export to the deep ocean by depositing iron rich feces into surface waters of the Southern Ocean. The iron rich feces causes phytoplankton to grow and take up more carbon from the atmosphere. When the phytoplankton dies, some of it sinks to the deep ocean and takes the atmospheric carbon with it. By reducing the abundance of sperm whales in the Southern Ocean, whaling has resulted in an extra 200,000 tonnes of carbon remaining in the atmosphere each year.
Carbon sequestration | Iron fertilization
CTS Style 2 is a 2002 update of the original Catch the Sperm game. Set in a blue environment that is ambiguous enough so that it could represent either the ocean depths or outer space, it features a Frozen Sperm, a Supersperm, a Fool Sperm, a Jungle Sperm, an I-Sperm, and a Jurassic Precious Sperm.
Catch the Sperm | CTS Style 2
When echolocating, the sperm whale emits a directionally focused beam of broadband clicks. Clicks are generated by forcing air through a pair of phonic lips (also known as "monkey lips" or "museau de singe") at the front end of the nose, just below the blowhole. The sound then travels backwards along the length of the nose through the spermaceti organ. Most of the sound energy is then reflected off the frontal sac at the cranium and into the melon, whose lens-like structure focuses it. Some of the sound will reflect back into the spermaceti organ and back towards the front of the whale's nose, where it will be reflected through the spermaceti organ a third time.
Sperm whale | Mechanism
Females reproduce every 2–3 years, usually to a single calf. In the Northern Hemisphere, males are usually and females at sexual maturity, while in the Southern Hemisphere, males average and females . The average age of sexual maturity of both sexes is 8–10 years. The whales can reach ages up to 65 years.
Sei whale | Reproduction
The third programme begins in the tropics, where a white sperm whale calf stays close to its mother. The 19th-century story of the "Essex", with its whalemen stranded in their lifeboats after a sperm whale attack is used to illustrate the difficulty of surviving in the open ocean. The currents that circle the South Pacific support huge shoals and an incredible variety of life, but much of the centre is an ocean desert. Nutrients are trapped at depth by the thermocline, making the windless surface clear but barren. Life can be tough for large predators. Some, including short-finned pilot whales, can dive to great depths to hunt squid.
South Pacific (TV series) | 3. "Endless Blue"
The dwarf sperm whale ("Kogia sima") is a sperm whale that inhabits temperate and tropical oceans worldwide, in particular continental shelves and slopes. It was first described by biologist Richard Owen in 1866, based on illustrations by naturalist Sir Walter Elliot. The species was considered to be synonymous with the pygmy sperm whale ("Kogia breviceps") from 1878 until 1998. The dwarf sperm whale is a small whale, and , that has a gray coloration, square head, small jaw, and robust body. Its appearance is very similar to the pygmy sperm whale, distinguished mainly by the position of the dorsal fin on the body–nearer the middle in the dwarf sperm whale and nearer the back in the other.
Dwarf sperm whale | Introduction
The most detailed showed by month and 5° of latitude and longitude: (a) the number of days on which whaling ships were in that sector; (b) the number of days on which they saw right whales; and (c) the number of days on which the saw sperm whales. In the North Pacific, these charts summarize more than 8,000 days on which the whalers encountered right whales and the searching effort by month and sector. The maps thus provide a crude measure of the relative abundance of right whales by geographic sector and month, controlled for the very non-random searching effort of the whalers.
North Pacific right whale | Historic distribution
Another theory says that the enlarged forehead caused by the presence of the spermaceti organ is used in all sperm whales between males fighting for females during mating season by head-butting each other, including "Livyatan" and the modern sperm whale. It may have also been used to ram into prey; if this is the case, in support of this, there have been two reports of modern sperm whales attacking whaling vessels by ramming into them, and the organ is disproportionally larger in male modern sperm whales. An alternate theory is that sperm whales, including "Livyatan", can alter the temperature of the wax in the organ to aid in buoyancy.
Livyatan | Spermaceti organ
Both species have a sac in the lower portion of their intestinal tracts that contains up to 12 liters of dark reddish-brown fluid, which can be ejected to confuse or discourage potential predators.
Pygmy sperm whale | Diet/foraging behavior
This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off Easter Island.
Sinezona carolarum | Distribution
Sei whales live in all oceans, although rarely in polar or tropical waters. The difficulty of distinguishing them at sea from their close relatives, Bryde's whales and in some cases from fin whales, creates confusion about their range and population, especially in warmer waters where Bryde's whales are most common. In the North Atlantic, its range extends from southern Europe or northwestern Africa to Norway, and from the southern United States to Greenland. The southernmost confirmed records are strandings along the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the Greater Antilles. Throughout its range, the whale tends not to frequent semienclosed bodies of water, such as the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Hudson Bay, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Sei whale | Range and migration
This species occurs in the demersal zone of the Pacific Ocean off the Gulf of California, Western Mexico
Imaclava asaedai | Distribution
"R. pachyptila" is a dioecious vestimentiferan. Individuals of this species are sessile and are found clustered together around deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the East Pacific Rise and the Galapagos Rift. The size of a patch of individuals surrounding a vent is within the scale of tens of metres. The male's spermatozoa are thread-shaped and are composed of three distinct regions: the acrosome (6 μm), the nucleus (26 μm) and the tail (98 μm). Thus, the single spermatozoa is about 130 μm long overall, with a diameter of 0.7 μm, which becomes narrower near the tail area, reaching 0.2 μm. The sperm is arranged into an agglomeration of around 340-350 individual spermatozoa that create a torch-like shape.
Riftia pachyptila | Reproduction
This back and forth reflection which happens on the scale of a few milliseconds creates a multi-pulse click structure. This multi-pulse click structure allows researchers to measure the whale's spermaceti organ using only the sound of its clicks. Because the interval between pulses of a sperm whale's click is related to the length of the sound producing organ, an individual whale's click is unique to that individual. However, if the whale matures and the size of the spermaceti organ increases, the tone of the whale's click will also change. The lower jaw is the primary reception path for the echoes.
Sperm whale | Mechanism
Adolescents and adults live in the lower mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones at depths of 500–2500 m. The upper limit of this species' migration is due to the higher temperature and lower salinity (less than 34.2 parts per thousand) of shallow Antarctic waters. There is also a seasonal vertical distribution pattern in which mature squids prefer to remain below the warmer, less saline surface layer of water in the summer and venture to shallower depths in the fall.
Galiteuthis glacialis | Distribution
The false killer whale appears to have a widespread presence in tropical and semitropical oceanic waters. The species has been found in temperate waters, but these occurrences were possibly stray individuals, or associated with warm water events. It generally does not go beyond 50°N and below 50°S. It usually inhabits open oceans and deep-water areas, though it may frequent coastal areas near oceanic islands. The false killer whale is thought to be common around the world, though no total estimation has been made. The population in the Eastern Pacific is probably in the low tens-of-thousands, and around 16,000 near China and Japan.
False killer whale | Population and distribution
They are eaten by the sperm whale in Southeast Asia and Galapagos waters
Ancistrocheirus | Ecology
"C. marginatus" is native to the northern hemisphere, occurring in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Ocean, as far south as the Mediterranean Sea in the east and Cape Cod in the west. In the Pacific Ocean it occurs between Alaska and San Diego, California, and in Japan. It occurs buried in soft sediment in the littoral zone but is more common in the sublittoral zone at depths of .
Cerebratulus marginatus | Distribution and habitat
This marine species occurs off New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and Macquarie Island; New South Wales and Southwest Western Australia.
Sinezona pacifica | Distribution
The dwarf sperm whale is an open ocean predator. The stomach contents of stranded dwarf sperm whales comprise mainly squid and, to a lesser degree, deep sea fish (from the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones) and crustaceans. However, crustaceans make up a sizable part of the diets of Hawaiian dwarf sperm whales, up to 15%. The stomach contents of whales washed up in different regions of the world indicate a preference for cock-eyed squid and glass squid across its range, particularly the elongate jewel squid ("Histioteuthis reversa") and "Taonius". The throat grooves and the developed musculature in the throat in "Kogia" are probably adaptations for increasing the volume of the mouth for suction feeding, possibly the best-developed among toothed whales.
Dwarf sperm whale | Diet
The whale probably follows seasonal squid migrations from offshore in the summer to nearshore in the winter. It is possible it prefers a slope habitat as it allows the whale to herd squid against the wall, or it causes upwelling which the whale can ride on in order to save energy while hunting. Younger animals may congregate in shallower areas and adults in deeper areas; the slope around South Africa may be a nursery grounds. "Kogia", unlike other whales, can eject a red-brown fluid when startled, likely to distract predators, similar to squid. This cloud can cover in the water.
Dwarf sperm whale | Behavior
Its length was estimated to be between .
Cryptid whale | High-finned sperm whale
The southern right whale dolphin and the hourglass dolphin live only in the Southern Ocean. The narwhal and the beluga live only in the Arctic Ocean. Sowerby's beaked whale and the Clymene dolphin exist only in the Atlantic and the Pacific white-sided dolphin and the northern straight dolphin live only in the North Pacific. Cosmopolitan species may be found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, northern and southern populations become genetically separated over time. In some species, this separation leads eventually to a divergence of the species, such as produced the southern right whale, North Pacific right whale and North Atlantic right whale.
Cetacea | Range and habitat
This bulbous expansion acts as a windkessel, ensuring a steady blood flow as the heart rate slows during diving. The arteries that leave the aortic arch are positioned symmetrically. There is no costocervical artery. There is no direct connection between the internal carotid artery and the vessels of the brain. Their circulatory system has adapted to dive at great depths, as much as for up to 120 minutes. More typical dives are around and 35 minutes in duration. Myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle tissue, is much more abundant than in terrestrial animals. The blood has a high density of red blood cells, which contain oxygen-carrying haemoglobin.
Sperm whale | Biological systems
The first fossil cetaceans near shallow seas (where porpoises inhabit) were found around the North Pacific; species like "Semirostrum" were found along California (in what were then estuaries). These animals spread to the European coasts and Southern Hemisphere only much later, during the Pliocene. The earliest known ancestor of arctic whales is "Denebola brachycephala" from the late Miocene around 9–10 million years ago. A single fossil from Baja California indicates the family once inhabited warmer waters. Ancient sperm whales differ from modern sperm whales in tooth count and the shape of the face and jaws. For example, "Scaldicetus" had a tapered rostrum.
Evolution of cetaceans | Toothed whales
The traditional view has been that Mysticeti (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales) arose from more primitive whales early in the Oligocene period, and that the super-family Physeteroidea, which contains the sperm whale, dwarf sperm whale, and pygmy sperm whale, diverged from other toothed whales soon after that, over . From 1993 to 1996, molecular phylogenetics analyses by Milinkovitch and colleagues, based on comparing the genes of various modern whales, suggested that the sperm whales are more closely related to the baleen whales than they are to other toothed whales, which would have meant that Odontoceti were not monophyletic; in other words, it did not consist of a single ancestral toothed whale species and all its descendants.
Sperm whale | Phylogeny
This species occurs in the demersal zone of the Eastern Central Pacific off Hawaii and Fiji.
Clavus powelli | Distribution
In Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", the Nautilus fights a group of "cachalots" (sperm whales) to protect a pod of southern right whales from their attacks. Verne portrays them as being savage hunters ("nothing but mouth and teeth").
Sperm whale | Cultural importance
This species occurs in the demersal zone of the tropical Pacific Ocean.
Clavus vibicinus | Distribution
They are members of the Odontoceti, the suborder containing all the toothed whales and dolphins. Suggestions that the sperm whales might be a sister group to the baleen whales were refuted by molecular and morphological data, confirming the monophyly of Odontoceti including sperm whales. One extant species of the genus "Physeter" is placed in the family Physeteridae. Two species of the related extant genus "Kogia", the pygmy sperm whale "K. breviceps" and the dwarf sperm whale "K. simus", are sometimes also placed in this family, or else are placed in their own family, the Kogiidae. A summary of the classification of extant and extinct (†) taxa is:
Physeteroidea | Classification
This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off the Marquesas Islands.
Nassarius cernohorskyi | Distribution
Unlike in the modern sperm whale, the premaxillae reached the sides of the snout. The upper jaw was thick, especially midway through the snout. The snout was asymmetrical, with the right maxilla in the upper jaw becoming slightly convex towards the back of the snout, and the left maxilla becoming slightly concave towards the back of the snout. The vomer reached the tip of the snout, and was slightly concave, decreasing in thickness from the back to the front. A sudden thickening in the middle-left side of the vomer may indicate the location of the nose plug muscles. Each mandible in the lower jaw was higher than it was wide, with a larger gap in between the two than in the modern sperm whale.
Livyatan | Skull