In the large family of modern whales, it is generally divided into two categories: baleen whales and toothed cetaceans.
Baleen whales, which do not have teeth but have whiskers arranged in a combed manner, feed by filtering seawater, such as blue whales.
Toothed cetaceans with sharp teeth in their mouths, hunt for a living. Sperm whales are the largest toothed whales, reaching up to 18 meters in length and weighing up to 50 tons. Don't look at sperm whales are big, they are one of the most deep diving species among mammals, can dive to two or three kilometers deep sea, swimming speed is also very fast. Sperm whales are called splem whales in English. How did such an undisciplined name come about? How did they drag such a large body and dive so deeply?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why sperm whales are called "semen whales."</h1>
The most remarkable feature of the sperm whale's body size is its large square head, which accounts for one-third of the total length of the body. More specifically, there is a lot of brain oil in the head of the sperm whale.
When early whaling crews removed sperm whale brain oil, they found that it was milky, slippery, and very sticky, and they mistakenly thought it was sperm of sperm whales. Therefore, Europeans at that time used to call sperm whales semen whales, and this name has been used ever since.
But in fact, the large amount of liquid present in the head of this cargo is not semen, but a substance called "spermaceti", also called "whale wax". Whale brain oil is a fat that has a melting point close to or slightly higher than the body temperature of a sperm whale and is stored in a chamber called a sperm whale brain oiler on the head of a sperm whale, and an adult sperm whale's head may contain more than 1,000 liters of whale brain oil.
When the temperature of whale brain oil is close to that of sperm whale, whale brain oil appears liquid, and when cooled to room temperature, it can solidify into a white paraffin-like substance, but it is not as hard as paraffin wax. Early humans found that sperm whale's whale brain oil is more stable in nature than other animal fats, not easy to deteriorate, clean and smokeless when burned, and the flame brightness is high and stable.
Therefore, in the era of whaling, whale brain oil was widely used, and after processing, it was made into candles, lamp oil, lubricating oil and other commodities. Before the invention of electric lighting, whale brain oil was always the top lighting appliance. Fortunately, with the continuous improvement of the development and utilization of fossil fuels, many chemicals that used whale oil as raw materials have begun to be replaced by oil, which has finally reduced the large-scale "hunting" of sperm whales.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > sperm whale has so much oil in its brain, what is the use? </h1>
What is the use of whale brain oil for sperm whales themselves, and why do they have so much oil in their heads?
In fact, even today scientists have no conclusive conclusions, in the current research, there are mainly the following two speculations:
First, help sperm whales regulate their own floating and diving
Sperm whales living in the sea often need to dive up and down to forage for food, and brain oil is the key to the sperm whale's ability to dive. They melt or solidify the brain oil by heating or cooling the brain oil, thereby changing the specific gravity to automatically adjust the buoyancy to achieve floating and diving.
When diving, the whale will use the nostrils to inhale the cold seawater to quickly cool the liquid brain oil that was originally melted by the body temperature, and after cooling down, the brain oil is close to the solidified state, and the density rises, so as to increase the specific gravity of the head, and the head is down, and the body can easily dive to the depths.
When floating, a large amount of warm blood is injected into the blood vessels of the brain oil organ, so that the brain oil melts into a liquid state to reduce the proportion of the head, at this time, as long as the head is facing up, it can be floated.
It is with the help of brain oil that the whales are saved physical strength to the greatest extent, making the huge sperm whale one of the best diving masters in nature. Of all the cetaceans, sperm whales dive the deepest and have the highest diving ability, so they are also known as "whales of the abyss". People tracked through sonar and found that sperm whales can dive to a depth of 2250 meters, and from the food in the stomach, they can even dive to a depth of more than 3000 meters.
Second, focus on the sound waves emitted and received by sperm whales
Another theory is that the brain oil organs of sperm whales may be related to the high-frequency sound waves emitted by sperm whales. Sperm whales use their huge nasal passages to make sounds, and then by listening to the reflected sounds, they determine the position of their prey and track them. The sperm whale's brain oil organ is like a huge lens, with a focusing function, which helps to enhance the sound waves emitted by the sperm whale. The sperm whale's call is as high as 230 decibels, the largest in the animal kingdom, and it is said that it can directly stun cuttlefish, but this claim is still very controversial.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the origin of the name "sperm whale"</h1>
Although the English name of the sperm whale is a bit "dirty", Chinese name "sperm whale" is much more elegant, and this name comes from a valuable spice - ambergris. So what is ambergris? Simply put, it is formed by the excrement of sperm whales.
Sperm whales in the deep sea mainly feed on a variety of squid and deep-sea fish, of which the king squid is the favorite of sperm whales.
Although the flesh of the squid is relatively soft, but the squid's mouth shell and endoskeleton are difficult to digest by the sperm whale, usually remain in the stomach, occasionally a very small number will enter the intestine, in order to avoid intestinal damage, its intestines will secrete a waxy-like thing, the indigestible substance wrapped up, these substances are mixed with other excrement, and then through a series of complex chemical reactions in the body, and finally excreted, and this mass of material needs to be soaked and oxidized by seawater for a long time, and finally slowly form ambergris. After being naturally dried, this substance can act as a perfume retainer and emit a long-lasting aroma, hence the name sperm whale
The formation of a piece of fine ambergris takes about a century, and it is not easy to come by, so this spice is very valuable, and only the emperor can use it in ancient times. Ambergris is another valuable commodity that humans get from sperm whales and is one of the raw materials for making high-end perfumes.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the existential crisis of sperm whales</h1>
Whale brain oil and ambergris in sperm whales are nature's gifts to humans, but they make sperm whales "vulnerable" species, and their populations are still gradually decreasing. Although the use of whale oil was banned internationally around the 1980s, and the World Whaling Commission announced a ban on commercial whaling, some countries took advantage of the loophole to hunt whales under the slogan of "scientific whaling".
In addition to whaling activities, the damage to the marine environment also affects whales: whales are entangled in abandoned huge trawls, floating nets and other fishing gear, will have accidental collisions with passing ships, and the pollution of seawater and its climate change make the survival of sperm whales face great threats.