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Today on animal fact files we’re talking about sperm whales. To understand the origin of this whale’s common name, we have to travel back in time to the 1800s when sperm whales were hunted. Sperm whales were pursued for two reasons: ambergris and spermaceti. Ambergris is essentially valuable whale poop. It’s a substance that remains in the whale’s digestive tract made up of indigestible food bits like squid beaks. A single ball of ambergris could be worth well over $100,000 if it was big enough, and it was used in making perfumes.

Spermaceti, on the other hand, was an oil used in all kinds of applications including lubrication and cosmetics. The machines that birthed the industrial revolution were all lubed up with this sperm whale oil. Spermaceti has a waxy appearance and when heated it resembles mammalian semen - hence the common name sperm whale.

But how do either of these substances relate to the whales’ lives? Well ambergris seems to be an accidental happenstance. Normally a week or so after a sperm whale eats squid, it will vomit up the indigestible beaks; sometimes, however, some of these beaks manage to enter the whale’s intestines and it’s believe that here the sharp beaks are covered in this substance to help them pass through the whale’s body safely. It’s then expelled like all other wastes.

Ambergris, however, is unique in that it floats and can even be found washed up on beaches! Spermaceti is believed to help sperm whales with either buoyancy, echolocation, or both! Sperm whales are found throughout all the world’s oceans. They spend their time in and over deep marine waters. Sperm whales dive deep to catch their preferred prey which includes animals like giant and colossal squids as well as fish like sharks and skates.

A sperm whale may dive as deep as 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) in search of food which is way past the point that light penetrates into the ocean. Because they can’t depend on sight while hunting, they utilize echolocation. The whales let out booming clicks and sound waves that bounce back to the whales after hitting an object, like a giant squid, in front of them. This gives the sperm whales an accurate idea of where their prey is swimming even in the pitch black of the deep ocean. They can hold their breath for over an hour, but eventually they must return to the surface to breathe.

Sperm whales are somewhat lopsided. Their blowholes are located on the left side of their heads. Internally their giant heads, which is where the spermaceti is stored, are also asymmetrical. A sperm whale’s head may make up up to a third of its body. In size, these whales range from 36 to more than 60 feet (11-18m) in length with adult males grossly out weighing the females at 45 tons (40,000kg) versus 26 tons (23,500kg). For reference, it would take about twelve male hippos to equal out a scale with a male sperm whale on the other side. And the differences between male and female sperm whales don’t just stop at their sizes!

Female sperm whales spend most of their time in tropical and subtropical waters in familial pods. These groups may number twenty or more members and it’s believed they may have even been larger before sperm whales were so intensely hunted. Female sperm whales will remain in these groups their entire lives, forming lifelong bonds.

Male sperm whales, on the other hand, disperse from their mother’s groups between the ages of 3 and 15. They’ll form bachelor groups with other similarly aged males and move to waters closer to the poles in search of food. When they’re ready to begin breeding in their late twenties, the males will make their way closer to the equator to meet up with the matriarchal pods.

Female sperm whales may begin reproducing by nine years of age and for the next two decades give birth approximately every five years. After this, they’ll continue to reproduce though at a much slower rate of one calf every fifteen years or so. Sperm whale gestation takes around fifteen months and the babies are born able to swim and approximately 15 feet (4.6m) in length! Mothers will swim with their undersides facing the surface of the ocean so their newborns can nurse while still breathing. Sperm whales will begin eating solid food within their first year of life but may continue nursing for two to thirteen years! Overall, these whales are believed to reach between 60 and 80 years of age, but some estimate they may live to a century.

Generally speaking, due to their large size, sperm whales don’t have to worry about predators - though they can definitely swim away with scars from a fight with a giant squid. That being said, these whales are still considered vulnerable to extinction and they are threatened by entrapment in fishing gear, choking on plastic bags, and collision with ships. What’s amazing, however, is that even though these whales were zealously hunted until the 1980s, they’re one of the more populous whale species alive today.

For more facts on sperm whales, check out the links in the description. Thank you to Wolsky for today’s request. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.