By:Quinton Campbell

The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale and lives in pods. It has the largest brain out of any animal. It has a single blow hole that is S-shaped and about 20 inches

long. It has a 4-12 inch layer of thick blubber. Sperm whales produce ambergris, a dark, waxy substance

(much like cholesterol) that is produced in the lower intestines, and is sometimes found containing squid beaks. It is thought to protect them from giant squid stings.

The skin is usually dark gray to black, but is occasionally light gray.

Sperm whales are found in many open oceans, both in tropical and cool waters.

Sperm whales live at the surface of the ocean but dive very deeply to catch the giant squid.

Adult males move into high latitude temperate waters during summer, leading a solitary lifestyle.

In winter, the bulls return to lower latitudes for mating.

While females remain grouped in tropical or subtropical waters.

The sperm whale is a Carnivore The sperm whale eats mostly giant squids by

diving to the bottom of the sea. They also eat fish, octopus, and skate. An adult sperm whale can eat up to a ton a food

a day. The teeth in the long, thin lower jaw are conical

and huge, about 7 inches long. These teeth weigh about 2 pounds

Female sperm whales help one another to look after babies, going so far as to practice communal nursing.

Females carry their young for 14-16 month at a time. Calves are about 13 feet and weigh about a ton. They nurse for 2 years but could end up possibly nursing

for 8 years.

Mating season is in spring and summer. Females give birth every 3 to 5 years  Young adult males will leave female-led pods and form

bachelor herds until they are able to compete in mating

It is thought that sperm whales have the lowest reproductive rate of any animal

The young are fed directly through the placenta as they develop in their mother’s womb.

The sperm whale has the 5 basic senses; hearing, touch, sight, smell, and taste.

Sperm whales use echolocation to find their food especially when they are at great depths of the sea.

Echolocation is the biological sonar used by several animals such as bats, and cetaceans(whales, dolphins, and porpoises).

Sperm whales use echolocation to catch their prey in the dark ocean depths

Mothers also use it to keep track of their young calf when they are diving to hunt

A calf can’t dive very deep because it has to breathe much more frequently than the mother has to

Sperm whales only known predators are killer whales. Where a large group of killer whales will consistently

attack, and wear down a group of sperm whales until they can separate one and finish it off.

The sperm whales use a defensive formation where the stick their heads together in a circle with their flukes out, and use their flukes to defend.

The 18th through 20th centuries whaling for sperm whales, was at tops and in full swing.

Spermaceti was an oil produced in the whales that was used for lamps, candles, crayons, soaps, perfumes, and many other products.

The whaling error crucially hurt the population of the sperm whale, and has been prohibited in almost every country of the world.

They have the largest brain out of any animal ever. The whale ship Essex was once attacked by a sperm whale in

1820, and was sunk, the survivors were on longboats for months, most died to starvation or disease.

It is the deepest sea diving mammal. The famous book “Moby Dick” was inspired to be because

Herman Melville (the writer of “Moby Dick”) heard the essex’s story.

The process I used to complete this project was Get the template for the project, open up a certain slide, then research that slide. When I finished that slide, on moved on to the next one in line. I continued this process, until I completed the slides.

I learned many different things about the sperm whale, that I did not know before such as them having the largest brains out of any animal ever, and them being the deepest sea diving mammals.

If I did this project again, I would try to manage my time more efficiently.

"All About Whales!". March 29, 2010 <http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/species/Spermwhale.shtml >. "Sperm Whale". March 29, 2010 <http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/learning/education/whales/sperm.asp >. "Sperm Whale". American Cetacean Society. March 29, 2010 <http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/spermwhl.htm>. "Killer Whale Predation on Sperm Whales". March 29, 2010 <http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1123259>. "Giant Squid, sperm whale predation". March 29, 2010 <http://cool-stuff.org/giant-squid-sperm-whale-predation>.

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