Giant Sperm Whale
Giant
Sperm Whale is
number one in many things.
Its Latin name is Physeter macrocephalus and it is the largest toothed whale, and the largest toothed animal on Earth.
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It also has a huge head (1/3 of its body) and the largest brain in the world.
It is also known as the deepest diving mammal, which is diving down about 3km where it hunts fish and giant squid.
That also makes it the largest living active predator (as opposed to the baleen whales that are filter feeders).
And on the top of all that, it produces the loudest sound in all animals.
It can grow up to 20 meters long and weigh up to 57 tons.
Males are larger than females. They live in pods, but male and female/calf pods are separate.
It lives up to 70 years. It is found in most oceans except polar waters, and most often in deep ocean waters.
The species was hunted during the old whaling days and today's numbers of individuals are not exactly known.
Sperm whales used to fight back when hunted, and attacked boats, one famous sinking was this of Essex in 1820 - the true story behind Moby Dick.
The Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia Sima) and Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps) look like small versions of Sperm Whales but they belong to a different family - Kogiidae. Both are found across all the world's oceans, roughly between 0 and 40 degree latitudes in both hemispheres.
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