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These animals are not spoiled with special attention today. They say more about smart and friendly dolphins, about giant blue whales, and almost a word about the noble knight of the seas and oceans – sperm whale. Maybe because few people read Herman’s exciting novel Melville “Moby Dick” about an amazing white sperm whale? But what is it marine animal deserves special attention of the American a writer?
Despite the fact that sperm whales belong to the order of cetaceans, they very different from their “relatives”. You could even argue that sperm whales are the most mysterious animals on our planet. Not do you believe? Read on …
Where do sperm whales get oxygen for so long being under water?
As everyone knows, whales are not fish, but mammals. marine animals that need to frequently emerge to breathe air into the lungs. Only for a short time do they leave for shallow depth, after which they rise to the surface of the water, otherwise suffocate. In contrast, sperm whales dive on depth over 2 kilometers and can remain under water for one and a half hours. Whales can only dream of such feats.
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Descending to great depths, the sperm whale feels colossal pressure that should flatten it into a cake. And he pops up alive and unharmed. It can also be assumed that for the animal reserves a lot of air during its deep-sea expeditions, therefore, he must have appropriate lungs. And it is not for example, the lungs of a sperm whale are much smaller than those of all others whales. What he breathes for so long, nobody knows exactly.
There is an assumption that the sperm whale accumulates air reserves in muscles and air sac, which is located in the right overgrown the nostril of the animal. But is it so, no one knows.
Sperm whale is not threatened by decompression sickness
All divers and divers are aware of the caisson (decompression) disease. At a depth, a person breathes balloon air, which includes, among other elements, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. If climbing to the surface is too fast, microscopic bubbles of these gases in the human body are released and, blocking small blood vessels, block blood supply process. Severe poisoning occurs, which may cause death.
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The same fate, in theory, should comprehend the sperm whale, because not from he’s another “test”. However, the sperm whale jumps from the depths like a torpedo – and nothing happens to him! Here is another the secret of this amazing animal. However, there is a version that his blood plasma is able to dissolve gases, not allowing them to form micro bubbles.
Sperm whales – animals-aliens?
Yes, this creature has many inexplicable oddities, as if it is not terrestrial, but alien. For example, a sperm whale It has the world’s longest intestines – more than 160 meters! It is completely incomprehensible what he is for him, because predatory animals have a relatively short intestine (significantly shorter than herbivores). But in the intestines of sperm whales, and only in males, contains ambergris – the most valuable incense for people. And why is it to the animal itself, no one really knows.
A photo from open sources
“Spermaceti bag” – a unique formation that is available only in sperm whales and which accounts for up to 90 percent of the weight huge animal head. The sponge tissue of this “bag” is saturated spermaceti – a clear fat-like liquid with healing properties. According to recent studies, this the organ is used for echolocation, helping to give direction waves of sound. Some believe that it can serve as a sperm whale for cooling, removing part of the heat from his body. And in the 70s of the past centuries, scientists have conducted research and concluded that The “spermaceti sac” regulates the buoyancy of these animals during diving and steep rise from the depths. It’s also possible that your sperm whales filled sperm heads are used to to absorb the blows received in combat fights. In a word, that neither the organ is a mystery …
What are sperm whales looking for in the depths of the oceans?
And one more interesting question: why does the sperm whale need to dive to a great depth, if around it in abundance is the most diverse food, but in the depths of it, on the contrary, a minimum? Maybe, the knight of the seas, whom nature seemed to have specially prepared for deadly contractions, looking for meetings with a giant squid – his a long-time sworn enemy?
However, it is not always possible to predict the outcome of a battle. Are available evidence that once the whalers got a sperm whale, which swallowed such a large squid that the tentacles of the mollusk did not fit in the whale belly and leaned out, sucking to snout of a predator. This squid weighed about 200 kilograms.
Traces left by suction cups are often found on the skin of sperm whales squid, – round marks with a diameter of up to 20 centimeters. However even the largest cephalopods known to science, reaching 10 meters in length, have suction cups not exceeding diameter of 5 centimeters. It is believed that squids leave the prints of their suction cups at a time when the sperm whale did not grow to the size of an adult animal. As it grows, the scars left stretch and greatly increase.
But maybe in the mysterious ocean depths sperm whales meet giants unknown to us, and the scars on their skins are traces of grandiose battles between deep-sea titans? ..
Well, if we are talking about a sperm whale, then, as they say, everything is possible. Even what at first glance seems impossible.
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