How long can a sperm whale dive at a time while chasing its prey?

Sperm whale (scientific name: Physeter macrocephalus): The head is huge, the jaw is small, and only the jaw has teeth. Mainly eat squid. With a body length of18m and a weight of over 50 tons, it is the largest toothed whale.

Sperm whales are also called "sperm whales" because their heads are particularly large, accounting for 1/3 of their body length. No dorsal fin; With strong diving ability, it is the deepest and longest diving mammal. It is like a fish, breathing with its lungs.

The real diving champion is the sperm whale, because the sperm whale dives for a long time and has little chance of being seen on the sea, but its special shape and jet make it difficult to be confused with other large whales. Sperm whales will float or swim slowly on the sea between dives, looking like a huge drifting wood; The jet with a left dip angle of about 45 degrees is low and shrub-like. There are often jumping waves or whale tails hitting waves. Sperm whales float on the water to sleep. They sleep soundly and often float on the water for hours. The ship stops at sea at night. During drifting, whales are often found sleeping quietly beside the boat.

Franco Banfi, a professional underwater photographer, was lucky enough to take a rare photo of a sleeping sperm whale near Dominica Island in the Caribbean.

The long-term stable female whale constitutes the core unit of sperm whale society. This small colony can reach 12 adult female whales, accompanied by their female and young male offspring. Generally, the swimming speed is 5-3 nautical miles per hour, and it can reach 7-65,438+02 nautical miles when it is frightened. Most of the old male whales with a body length of 12 to 17 meters swim alone in the ocean, and rarely find communication lasting more than 1 day. Flocks of sperm whales sometimes run aground on the beach.

It is reported that in 2008, people began to understand the sleeping situation of sperm whales. Biologists in Britain and Japan have found that sperm whales can fall asleep completely while floating or diving, without breathing or moving during the period, and have little response to the outside world.

In addition, sperm whales sleep only 7% of their lives, about 6 to 24 minutes a day, which is the mammal with the least sleep time, followed by giraffes, with 8% sleep time. In addition, sperm whales are extremely lethal, and a slap on the dorsal fin is enough to kill people, so it is even more difficult to photograph sperm whales sleeping.

Long Xianxiang is a waxy substance that occasionally forms in the intestines of sperm whales. Sperm whales' love for giant squid is the source of Long Xianxiang, one of the most precious seafood. Sperm whales swallow giant squid in one gulp, but they can't digest squid's parrot mouth. They gradually form a thick dark substance in the small intestine, weighing 100- 1000 g, which used to be 420 kg. Its maximum diameter is165cm, and this substance is called "long Xiang Yan". It is stored in the colon and rectum. It stinks when I first took it out. After storage for a period of time, it gradually smells better than "musk". "Long Xianxiang" is the best substance to keep the fragrance of perfume, and it is used as a fixative.

Long Xianxiang is a gray or blackish secretion, containing 25% dracorhodin. It is not only the raw material of precious spices, but also a precious Chinese medicine. It has the effects of resolving phlegm and resolving stagnation, benefiting qi and promoting blood circulation, but it is not common. Occasionally, a piece weighing 50 ~ 100 kg will be priceless, hence the name sperm whale.

In the past 200 years, under the light of human industrial civilization, the whale's back has become increasingly dim. Until the middle of the last century, human beings still killed tens of thousands of whales every year, and more than half of the whales entered the IUCN red list. Red is the color of seawater dyed red with blood. Nowadays, whale oil has been replaced by various petrochemical products, Long Xianxiang has found a synthetic substitute, and whaling ships seem to be gradually becoming history. However, the entanglement of fishing nets, the collision of ships and environmental pollution still threaten these gentle marine behemoths, leaving this species that can adapt to the largest space on the planet with nowhere to hide.