The Insane Biology of: The Sperm Whale

Be sure to check out the Field Notes episode that goes along with this video on Nebula! In this episode we talk to the experts about what its like to study - and dissect - such massive creatures, and what its like to be crushed by one while kayaking. Watch it by signing up to the bundle deal at curiositystream.com/realscience

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

For those who don’t know how decibels work every 3 dB doubles how loud the sound is. So if human ears burst at 150 dB to get over 200 you have to double that loudness about 18 times. That is frightening.

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.

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

Depending on their hunting "grounds", sperm whales have adopted different hunting techniques: a study has confirmed that, for example, whales in the arctic sea actively chase their prey, emitting extremely fast sequences of clicks once they're close to the prey and they usually dive 400 to 600 meters. They're really fascinating creatures and I can't wait for new discoveries on their lifestyle and complex communication!

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!

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

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

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.