As early as about 50 million years ago, the ancient Pakistani whale, the ancestor of whales , was still an animal that walked on four legs on land. They gradually began to enter the water and slowly tasted the sweetness of the water. By about 42 million years ago, Peregocetus pacificus appeared, and it had adapted to life in the water. After
, whales began to spread out in the ocean, and there are now as many as 90 species of cetaceans. Cetaceans can be divided into baleen whales and toothed whales according to the presence or absence of teeth. Baleen whales have no teeth and can only rely on baleen plates (baleen plates) to filter small creatures in the water for food. Blue whales are typical baleen whales.
Toothed whales are whales with teeth. They all have dense, sharp conical teeth, suitable for biting and cutting prey. Therefore, they all feed on larger aquatic animals, such as killer whales in the family Delphinidae, which have 20-32 thick conical teeth . With a bite force of up to 2,000 kilograms, even great white sharks can only run for their lives when encountering killer whales.
However, the killer whale is not the largest toothed whale. Its average body length is only about 7 meters, and its maximum body length is 9.45 meters, which is nearly twice as small as the sperm whale. The average body length of an adult sperm whale is about 13 meters (males are 16 meters on average, females are 11 meters on average), and their average weight is about 40 tons (males are 50 tons on average, and females are 15 tons on average).
Comparison of body sizes of some whales
With an average length of 7 meters, killer whales can be said to run rampant in the ocean. Whether they are marine mammals ( sea lions, seals, fur seals, walruses) or large fish (sharks, king salmon), they are all its prey. Even swarms of killer whales can kill newly adult blue whales.
But they are also toothed whales, but sperm whales can only hunt cuttlefish, squid and some small fish. Among the prey hunted by sperm whales, the largest and most common is the king squid. This is a "giant" with a body length of up to 13 meters. Of course, 2/3 of this body length is the length of the tentacles, and the average length of the real ketone is only 3-4 meters.. But despite this, the giant squid is also a "deadly prey" for sperm whales.
Why do sperm whales like to eat king squid?
The king squid is one of the largest cephalopods animals in existence. It is slightly smaller than the king physalis squid. Although the king squid has squid in its name, it is not a squid, but a type of squid. Although cuttlefish and squid both belong to the order Decabrachia, squid is the collective name for all animals under the order Squid, while squid is the collective name for all animals under the order Squid (also known as the suborder Squid). There are two biggest differences between the two: first, the squid has a protective film on its eyes, but the squid does not; second, the fins of the squid extend from the middle of the ketone to the tail, while the squid only has fins on the tail.
The giant squid is the only member of the giant squid family under the suborder Squid. They are widely distributed in the deep seas of the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, and their habitat depth is usually between 600 meters and 1500 meters. As one of the largest cephalopods in existence, the king squid has a huge size. According to current research, the maximum body length of the male king squid is about 13 meters and the weight is 275 kilograms. The maximum length of the female is about 10 meters and the weight is 150 kilograms. As for the length of the king squid, the length is generally about 3 meters, and the maximum length does not exceed 5 meters..
As for the legendary 20 meters or even 30 meters, there is no direct evidence so far, and the discovery of the giant squid has also solved some sea monster mysteries.
The reason why sperm whales like to hunt king squid is mainly because sperm whales are large and have a large demand for food. However, although sperm whales are toothed whales, they only have 20-26 pairs of teeth in their lower jaws and no teeth in their upper jaws. The lack of teeth in their upper jaws makes them unable to use their teeth to tear apart prey like other toothed whales, so they can only rely on " sucking ".
Therefore, the sperm whale’s mouth is also very distinctive. It is slender. This kind of mouth enhances the suction power (refer to the shape of our mouth when we suck things).
The sperm whale cannot tear apart its prey, making it impossible for the sperm whale to hunt large fish and mammals, but its size requires it to eat some larger prey. At this time, the king squid, the largest among squids, naturally becomes its most ideal prey.
In addition, unlike most toothed whales, sperm whales are the deepest diving among large whales. They can dive to a depth of more than 2,000 meters under the sea, and usually also move in the seawater layer of about 1,000 meters. However, the distribution of marine life decreases with the increase of seawater depth. This is because the deeper the seawater depth, the greater the pressure, the less light, and the lower the temperature. Therefore, most marine life is concentrated in the seawater depth of 0-500 meters.
In the ocean with a sea water depth of 1,000 meters, except for the king squid, other animals are relatively small. Therefore, sperm whales often meet with the king squid at the same sea depth. Sperm whales have a greater demand for prey size, and at the same time, they are restricted by their hunting ability. In the end, the king squid became the main prey of the sperm whale.
"Deadly Prey" King Squid
Although in terms of body length, the King Squid is almost the same as the Sperm Whale, its average weight of 200 kilograms is destined to suppress its overall size by the Sperm Whale. Therefore, in the interaction between the two, the Sperm Whale takes the initiative, while the King Squid is passively defensive.
However, it is not as simple as we think for sperm whales to eat king squid, because if you are not careful, it may be fatal. Why do you say that?
First of all, the king squid is very powerful. Although they do not have sharp teeth, their 8 long and 2 short tentacles are not vegetarian. The tentacles of the king squid are covered with different sizes. The suction cup can be firmly fixed on the opponent's body surface, and in the suction cup, there are sharp keratinized ring serrations . These ring serrations can easily bite open the skin of a sperm whale, and can even cut off a round piece of skin with flesh.
Before scientists discovered the existence of the giant squid, the wounds on the heads of some stranded sperm whales had always been a mystery. It was not until after the giant squid was discovered that the "real murderer" was found by comparing the size of the king squid's suckers and the size of its ring teeth.
However, scientists believe that these wounds are not the main cause of the stranding of sperm whales, although the diameter of these wounds is more than 4 centimeters and the depth is more than 2 centimeters. The author has a different view on this point. Sperm whales have a huge square forehead, which contains a large amount of spermaceti oil. In addition to helping the sperm whale sink and float better, this organ can also emit and collect sound waves. It is a very important organ. Once this organ is damaged, it is easy to fail navigation and cannot dive freely, resulting in stranding (in my humble opinion).
Secondly, the suction cups on the arms and legs of Decapoda are no joke. There have been anchors who ate raw octopus for the sake of sensationalism and had their trachea sucked by the suction cups and sought medical treatment. Compared with the octopus, the sucker of the king squid is much more terrifying. Not only is its sucker large, but it also has ring serrations, and the king squid has strong vitality. Even if the ketone part cannot move, the vitality of the tentacles can be maintained for a period of time. If you eat the tentacles while they are still capable of moving, the suckers on the tentacles will be firmly attached to various parts of the mouth, even reaching the throat.
As early as 2015, a bottlenose dolphin stranded on a beach in Western Australia was found with an octopus in its mouth. Through the dissection of the dolphin , researchers found that these suckers were still firmly attached to the base of the dolphin's tongue, which was the main cause of its death.
Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of swallowing, the sperm whale must completely kill the king squid in the deep sea, otherwise the "teeth" in the sucker are more deadly than the simple sucker. Therefore, although the king squid is the "staple food" of the sperm whale, it can definitely be called a "deadly prey."
Summary
Although the sperm whale is the largest toothed whale, it only has teeth in its lower jaw, which makes their hunting ability actually relatively weak. They can only suck prey into their mouths by sucking. And it is a large whale and has a large demand for food, so it chose a deep-sea creature like the giant squid, which is powerful but can be full after eating just one.
And in the fight, the sperm whale has an advantage, but it is by no means overwhelming, because during the fight, the giant squid will use its tentacles to make the sperm whale's head riddled with holes. Even after surrendering, it must be sure that the giant squid is completely dead before it dares to inhale it.
