A family of sperm whales, Indian Ocean
© Tony Wu/Nature Picture Librar
Whale you save me?. Endangered Species Day
Brains, brawn and a serious case of going deep—the sperm whale isn't here for surface-level living. This Endangered Species Day, meet a giant that thinks big and dives deeper.
Sperm whales have the largest brain ever recorded—up to 9 kilograms (about five times heavier than a human's). Their massive head, about one-third of their body length, holds spermaceti, a waxy oil once prized for candles and machinery. They're also record-breaking divers, plunging up to 2,000 metres for up to 90 minutes to hunt squid. Down there, they rely on echolocation clicks that can reach around 230 decibels, making them the loudest animal on the planet.
They often nap vertically, eat over 900 kilograms of food a day, and have an off-centre blowhole. Living in matriarchal pods, with males going solo, they communicate through click patterns called codas. Once hunted for oil and ambergris, they now face ship strikes, noise and plastic pollution. Whales mastered diving deep. Now it's on us to not let their future sink.
Galápagos sea lion off the shore of Fernandina Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Sperm whale mother and albino baby swimming off the coast of Portugal
Giant manta ray and a photographer off the Ningaloo Coast, Australia
Long-beaked common dolphin pod and diving Cape gannets hunting Pacific sardines off the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Humpback whales, Maui, Hawaii
Young humpback whale giving its mother a hug off the coast of Tonga
A pod of narwhals near Baffin Island, Nunavut
Adélie penguin in Graham Passage, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica
