who it is - the largest animal on Earth?Probably many of us think that it is an elephant.In principle, there is a grain of truth.Elephant - the largest animal living on land.But life as we know, the land is not limited to one, the more that 75% of the Earth's surface take the seas and oceans.Aquatic life - a unique macrocosm with its magnificent and in many cases poorly known organisms.The largest animal in the world lives in a land and in the ocean.His name - the whale.In turn, the largest toothed whale in the world - the sperm whale.In this article we will talk about cetaceans animals and describe in detail all of life, nutrition and reproduction of the largest toothed whale.
Lords of boundless seas
first step is to decide what the whales - are mammals, not fish, as many inhabitants.They do not breathe through gills like fish and light.Keith can not be all my life to be under water!From time to time these animals is essential to rise to the surface to breathe a breath of fresh air.It is a vital need for them.Since all cetaceans - it mammals, they give birth to live young already formed and feed them with milk.Whale milk is considered a much more nutritious cow.This allows kityatam grow rapidly.
paradox of these mighty rulers of the seas is that, like mammals, they are completely helpless and powerless on the ground.On the ground, none of the whale can not move on the meter!These animals are simply unable to overcome its own weight.Unfortunately, the drying of the seas, they die within hours.Normally, this news pleased the local population.People like hungry vultures attack the helpless animal with cutlasses, knives and saws.They cut the skin of a whale on the flat part, and then carefully cut out the pieces of meat.
Who is he - the largest whale in the world?
wonder these animals are called masters of the seas.Even the famous explorer, oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau called one of his books about whales: "The mighty rulers of the seas."Currently, the world inhabited by a total of 92 species of mammals.The largest whale in the world - it is blue, or blue whale.His inspiring size really excite minds of mankind: this animal reaches 35 m in length.If we make a simple comparison, it is on the back of a blue whale is easily will fit 30 elephants.
Who are toothed whales?
Currently, these representatives of the order Cetacea animals inhabit almost all the seas and oceans of the world.The only exceptions are the polar regions.Toothed whales, or critters - a suborder of cetaceans mammals.His representatives have in their jaws several rows of teeth and are extremely carnivores.The vast majority of these animals in their inferior size cetaceans toothless, representative of which is the largest whale in the world - blue, or blue.The only toothed marine mammals, which somehow can compete with them in size, is a sperm whale.Other species - a small or medium-sized cetaceans.
taxonomy
little critters are mainly represented by sperm whales, dolphins and killer whales (big whale in black and white color).Sperm whales feed on cephalopods and dolphins - mostly fish.Octopus and the more they do not attract the squid.Orcas, by contrast, are the most dangerous members of this class of animals.No wonder they are called whales-killers.Cephalopods and fish are almost no interest.Killer whales prefer to hunt sea lions and seals.They often attack swarms on their own relatives, trying to wrest them soft and greasy tongue.
largest toothed whale in the world
This sperm whale.Origin of the name of this species of whale are likely to have Portuguese roots.The fact that the Portuguese word «cachola» translated into Russian means a big head.The head of these whales is really huge, but more on that later.The sperm whale is the only member of the family kashalotovyh.Generally, these marine animals - herd mammals living huge groups, the number of animals which sometimes reaches several hundred.As mentioned above, the sperm whale is the suborder of toothed whales that swim quite quickly and develop a speed of 50 km / h.
Sperm whales, like all other kinds of whales - excellent divers.It's hard to believe, but they dive to depths of up to 3000 m!Scientists do not accidentally call this number.Once it is at such a depth was discovered sperm whale, hopelessly caught in deepwater subsea cables.Dive to depths of as hazardous allows them a thick layer of subcutaneous fat: he saves a sperm whale from hypothermia.On the seabed, they hunt, looking for where his favorite prey - giant squid, but we will talk about later.
Appearance and size of the sperm whale
As has been said here, the sperm whale - the largest toothed whale, inhabiting the seas and oceans of our planet.It is understandable, because adult males reach a length of 23 m and weight 50 tons.Their females, in turn, does not exceed 15 m and a weight of 20 tons.Moreover, the sperm whale is one of the few representatives of the order Cetacea, which is pronounced sexual dimorphism.It is about the size of the above: the females of these whales are not only much smaller than males, but differ from them in build, the number of teeth, the shape of the head, etc.A distinctive feature of the exterior of a sperm whale - is a huge rectangular head, which is the so-called spermaceti bag.
little about his teeth
Toothed whales, which presented photos in this article are one of the two current suborders of cetaceans animals.The second suborder is presented by so-called baleen whales, but in this article we are not interested.As you can tell from their names, on the jaws Critters have teeth.This is not surprising, because all whales - is carnivores, feeding on cephalopods, fish, and sometimes marine mammals.Curiously, sperm whales teeth are almost not needed.However, they are worth mentioning.
Sperm whales are in the mouth to 30 pairs of teeth.One tooth of a sperm whale weighs up to 1 kg.Proper head structure enables these whales actively suck in prey without teeth.The special anatomical location of the mandible allows it to sink to 90 degrees, which, in turn, allows you to select the sperm whales from the seabed crayfish and crabs.Teeth do not need these giants even chewing food.It is for them make the stones that sperm whales deliberately pick from the bottom.They grind food in their stomachs.
The sperm whale eats?
sperm whale (photo presented in the article) prefers to eat cephalopods (octopus) and, of course, the giant squid.The size of the squid are in the range of 15 to 20 m in length.Fish diet usually take in the life of the sperm whale is not more than 5%.To find a favorite food of these whales to dive into uncharted depths of up to 3 km.Squids that live in the upper water layers, it is absolutely not interested in the sperm whale as food.These animals feed exclusively on the big depths.Scientists believe that this is due to lack of food there is competition: the sperm whale concentrate on production rather than on the sharing out of her with other animals.Under the water the largest toothed whale can be up to 1.5 hours!
how to hunt sperm whales?
hunt sperm whales using ultrasonic echolocation.Some scientists attribute this to the fact that high-frequency sounds lead to confusion giant clams, disorienting them in the environment.An important role is played here by the same spermaceti bag, which we mentioned above.In this case, it acts as an acoustic lens.Furthermore, it provides the desired level of buoyancy at a particular depth.The largest whale Nibbler is considered a very dangerous animal.Injured sperm whale takes iron self-control and an unprecedented aggressiveness.That is why the hunt for them is associated with a greater risk.There are cases when the enraged animals killed sailors and whalers even drowned their vessel.
Reproduction
Close sperm whales from the family of toothed whale reaches its maturity to 5 years.The female sperm whales are ready to mate a little earlier - in 4 years.These animals are polygamous beings: males form harems with the entire 12-15 females.During mating, they, like many other animals behave very aggressively.Pregnancy lasts for 15-18 months.Progeny they appear at any time of year, but in the northern hemisphere, many females give birth only in July-September.Usually one pup is born in length of 4-5 m and weighing about a ton.Immediately after birth, the female starts feeding little whale.
Hardfought
Zoologists called one of the most exciting spectacles of wildlife deadly battle with the giant sperm whale squid.This explains the scars and traces of suckers, which are literally dotted with the largest toothed whale.In mortal combat squid protected, leaving marks on the head of a whale as small dents in circles with a diameter of 25 cm. A case where from the stomach of a sperm whale was taken out half-dead squid, weighing 200 kg!Curiously, his tentacles protruding from the jaws of toothed whales, firmly stuck to it, and a large rectangular head.About the eternal confrontation squid and sperm whales have run the whole legends and tales.Here's a warrior, he - the sperm whale!Photo mortal combat is presented below.
From the history of the ancestors of cetaceans
According to some paleontologists, about 70 million years ago, long-lived ancestors of modern whales on land.They were covered with hair and had fins instead of limbs.After a while they moved to shallow water.There it was very convenient escape from enemies and look for food.This way of life like these animals, and a few million years, they have completely disappeared into the water.Wool has completely disappeared with their torso and front legs transformed into fins.The tail also took the form required for comfortable swimming in the water.
Of course, such a metamorphosis with the ancestors of the cetaceans did not occur immediately, but within a few million years.
