Introduction

So, who are sperm whales? Sperm whales are whales with very big heads.

There are so many weird things about them; people use sperm whales “throw up” to make makeup! (Don’t worry, it’s actually fossilized stuff in their intestines that people grind to make a powder-so you can still use makeup.) It costs up to 75,000 dollars!!!

They also have the biggest brains, it weighs nine pounds and thirteen ounces. A world record! Yes, they are smart.

How did they get the name? What do they eat? Keep reading to find out!

As a calf 

What is a calf?

A baby whale of course! 

A sperm whale leaves its mother after being with her for one year. A sperm whale has a calf every two years. Sperm whales are pregnant for 15 months. A baby whale being born is a very social event, the entire pod protects the mother and newborn calf creating a barrier.

While still a calf, the pod and the calf’s mother will protect it from predators, feed it food and help it come up to breathe. Of course it can’t swim very well yet and it needs to know how to hunt for itself-without getting eaten. Its mother (and the pod) will also go diving with her/him for the first time and will get most of the food, but the calf will be training to live in the world on its own.

When it comes to threats, a mother is very protective of its young. She will snap her jaws at the possible predator and, if too threatened she will release fecal material into the water and swish it around with her fins. 

Mouth

Sperm whales have 18 to 30 teeth but only on both sides of the lower jaw, they are cone shaped (like your canine teeth.) On their upper jaw they have holes made to fit their lower-jaw teeth.  

 Body 

A sperm whale’s body is very big; they are the biggest toothed whales in the ocean. Males can grow up to 60 feet and female adults are approximately 40 feet long. There are also super weird and interesting things about them, like when stuck on a beach or on land anywhere, they explode! Weird right?

They also have something in their intestines called Ambergris (also known as whale vomit) that is used to make makeup and can be worth up to 75,000 dollars.

They have another thing called spermaceti which is a white waxy substance inside their head. The most likely use is to help with echo location, another possible use is that it helps with diving and ascending. The word spermaceti is also how they got their name spermaceti, people confusing it for sperm. Another thing it did for them is to have a lot of hunters after them, for spermaceti made good candles, oil for lamps, and other stuff, their blubber was also sold for warmth. Moby dick was also a sperm whale.

As for the exploding part, sperm whales can usually handle a lot of pressure so the normal cause for exploding is either a gas buildup in the dying body and the blubber will not let the gas out leaving the gas no way to get out, ending up with an explosion. Another way that sperm whales explode is the pressure of people climbing on top of the whale to grab souvenirs or scientists climbing on top of them to take things to study, or of course if they are too big to move people will actually explode them.

Sadly the population is going down because of pollution, hunting, and being beached, and others. One sperm whale was found dead with 100 plastic cups in it, 4 plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, and 2 flip flops.

So, please try to recycle hard plastic/plastic bottles put ziplock and clear plastic bags in sports basement or costcos reuse bucket and don’t throw your flip flops in the trash make sure you also try not to use plastic! ( people now make paper straws and compostable cups.)

Food

Sperm whales eat quite a list of seafood including: cuttle fish, squid, octopus, collasal and giant squid, and others, it is a possibility that sperm whales also eat sharks.

Danger

There are not many predators to sperm whales, so this could be a short chapter.

But there are predators, a killer whale is an example of that, they are known to hunt sperm whales, and is the biggest natural threat to them.

There are other predators too, false killer whales are known to hunt sperm whales too. Pilot whales are also known to hunt them. Although, they normally escape.

About The Author

Caitlin McCrath is in 4th grade and is 9 years old. She has written and illustrated many books including: Australian Animals, A dream full of poems, The big injury on vacation, Dad’s photo, Pillow fight! and more. She lives in San Francisco, and goes to Live Oak School.