The Insane Biology of: The Sperm Whale

Credits:
Narrator/Writer: Stephanie Sammann
Writer: Lorraine Boissoneault
Editor: David O'Sullivan

Special Thanks To:
Dr. Joy Reidenberg
Susan Bird
Tom Mustill - and be sure to check out his new book How to Speak Whale

Imagery courtesy of Getty Images

References:

[Pure_Malevolence]

The idea of a sperm whale, that is potentially sentient, diving down and just sonic blasting the shit out a giant squid is epic.

[cameronsitton]

Imagine you're swimming and some whale yells "YO GARY" to get a buddy's attention and you just get shredded

[CaioRodrigues]

Deepest diver, loudest screams, biggest brains, biggest toothed predator and idk how many other records broken! Truly an amazing creature

[ohedd]

The bit about whales possibly learning and conveying strategies for evading whalers is extremely interesting. I also wonder if the intelligence of the sperm whale and the intelligence of the squid came as a result of an arms race with each other. If so, sperm whale intelligence appear to have evolved more in the direction of human intelligence; where we evolved abilities to communicate and organize and take advantage of collective intelligence. By contrast the squid, who's a solitary animal, evolved incredible spatial intelligence and abilities to solve complex cognitively demanding tasks.

[RobinCrusoe]

I hope when, if, we decipher their language the first thing we should communicate is how profoundly sorry we are for almost bringing about their extermination.

[daniell]

I don't know why, but the idea of making a Rosetta Stone for the sperm whale's language really hits me in the feels. For so long, humans have been wondering if we are alone in the universe and spent so much time looking into space to try and find neighbors, when in reality we should have been looking into the oceans. Sperm whales and orca both have complex languages, and I wouldn't be one bit surprised if we found out one or both are sapient, and sentient, creatures. I honestly can't wait for this teased video.

[stomp]

Imagine you open your eyes and you realize you're a sperm whale, surrounded by your pod. You look around to see nothing else except the ocean. Your pod tells you that its time to go deep into the dark abyss to hunt. Your heart starts beating faster and faster as you dive deep and the only comfort you have is your pod of whales. Its gets darker and darker and you lose sight of them but you're still able to communicate. You gain immense respect for whales but also wish you can return to being a human, as the cold dark Abyss terrifies you. You wake up and let out a sigh of relief. Your mom comes in the room but her head is a whale, so you go back to sleep.

[autumnwind]

Killing animals like Sperm Whales, Orcas, Beluga Whales and dolphins is morally wrong as these creatures are sentient beings who can speak their own language

[Deviantial]

Can you imagine if one day we actually manage to understand their language and communicate with these magnificent creatures?

[TragoudistrosMPH]

Humans wanting to communicate with aliens always struck me as odd when we can't communicate with other Earth animals...

[GeneralLeeRetarded]

At the 6:40 mark when it talked about whales basically only getting the benz/decompression sickness due to loud noises makes me think they are fully aware of how long they need to go down and come up but us humans being assholes accidently forced them up with sonar and noticed oh hey they can die from surfacing too quickly too...

[erikhendrickson]

The mathematics of multi-path sonar are incredibly complex. How these animals can determine the direction of a whale cry, over bundreds of miles distance, has always been fascinating to me.

Sonar waves can bounce not only off the ocean floor (obviously) but also the ocean surface and even get trapped in "water tunnels" created by differing water temperatures and salinity.

The maths to calculate these things, for example on nuclear-powered subs, are some of our most highly-classified military secrets. So how do these whales do it? Are they effectively solving complex trigonometric equations in their head?

[EnriqueVarelaJr]

I love this channel, ever since you started, the production value and research is second to none. Keep it up.

[trulyinfamous]

The fact that this channel not only has actual captions but also cites sources is awesome. You're setting a good example.

[ccselmo]

Deep in the darkest depths of the ocean, where no light shines and most animals have never experienced light. *shines a giant flashlight down there*

[TheSixStringGuy]

Just found this channel and I am blown away, I love the narrators voice and the explanation of everything, the editing and diagrams all perfect. Wish they had vids like this when I was in school.

Liked and subscribed!

[layzyliam]

Been addicted to and binge watching "the insane biology of" series, amazing documentary, editing and script. Keep up the incredible work! 💯 Support from Australia.

[michealvargo]

Imagine hearing a sound that's below our hearing range, but loud enough to make you go deaf

Silence:
🐋
Silence intensifies:

[jshumphress]

I like how the dads are like "nah family life isn't for me. I am going to go hang out with my bros. Peace out."

[KendrixTermina]

Being able to communicate with your baby at a long distance seems so useful! I sure wished my mom had skills like that when I was babysitting my sister xD that way she could calm her down while she's fetching groceries.