Photo: Marion & Christoph Aistleitner · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Description
- 📏 11 to 16 m
- 🌊 deep open water
- 🛡️ Vulnerable (IUCN)
The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale. Its enormous head makes up about a third of its length and houses an organ filled with oil, the spermaceti. It dives very deep, often more than 1,000 m, to hunt squid. Family groups are made up of females and young, while big males more often live alone.
Did you know?
It is one of the animals that dive deepest in the world: it is rarely seen from the coast, but it frequents the deep waters around the Polynesian archipelagos.
Source: Biology of the species
The Tahitian name of this species is not yet confirmed in our sources.
Tahitian names: sources being verified. French name: Cachalot.
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