Sperm Whale, 2019 (Wild Safari Sealife by Safari Ltd.)

Review and images by Cachalot; edited by bmathison1972

Recently I have gotten interested in sea animals, whales in particular. The sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is my favorite; it is an animal of extremes. It has the largest brain on earth, 17 to 20 pounds. There are music ditties about this creature being brainy. Is it that smart? We really don’t know because there isn’t much known about this animal. It does have a knowing gaze and sperm whales have snatched fish off of bait lines. This seems impossible for them because of the shape of their mouths, yet they figured out how to do it. The sperm whales off Dominica also remember divers that return and recognize them. One went out of her way to swim up to a diver and greet her. Their language of creaks and clicks is also the most complex in the animal kingdom. It is believed by scientists that sperm whales living in social groups may have a set of clicks unique to individuals; in other words, they may have names. The sperm whale also has the longest digestive tract. It is one of the deepest divers in the animal kingdom, being exceeded only by the southern elephant seal and Cuvier’s beaked whale. It can stay under water for up to 90 minutes or, according to some, longer. They also have the largest biological sonar of any animal. Its head can take up a third of its total body length.

Also known as the cachalot, the sperm whale is the largest of the toothed whales, preying primarily on squid. It is truly a cosmopolitan animal found in all the oceans of the world. Females and young males will live in social groups averaging 7-12 animals while adult males live solitary lives outside of the mating season.

Sperm whales are the most sexually dimorphic of all cetaceans. At birth, males (bulls) and females (cows) are about the same size. At maturity, however, bulls are 30% to 50% longer and three times as massive as the cows. At birth the calves are usually between 3.7 to 4.3 meters (12 to 14 ft) long. Cows are physically mature at about 10.6 to 11 meters (35 to 36 ft) in length and usually don’t grow much larger than about 12 metres (39 ft). Bulls reach maturity at about 16 metres (52 ft) in length and reach a maximum of about 18 to 19 meters (59 to 62 ft). There are old reports of 80 foot bulls. The veracity of these reports has been contested. The bull that sank the Essex was said to be 85 long. The International Whaling Commission’s largest recorded bull was 24 metres (79 feet) in 1933. Today sizes like these haven’t been observed – a sad result of the whaling years.

It is very unlikely to confuse the sperm whale with any other whale with its huge blocky head and narrow underslung jaw. The tongue is at the back of the unique gap this animal has. The sperm whale can open its mouth about 90 degrees. Cone shaped teeth are visible in the bottom jaw and number 18 to 26 on each side and fit into sockets in the upper jaw. They do not appear to be necessary for capturing and swallowing squid. Some cows never erupt teeth or have very few teeth. The function of the teeth may be primarily aggression between bulls. Bulls show scars on their faces from being raked with the teeth while the skin of the cows is pristine in comparison.

The blocky head contains the spermaceti organ and the melon. Spermaceti is where the animal got its name ‘sperm whale’. It is actually a mixture of fats and waxes. Personally, I prefer the name ‘cachalot’. The more common term comes from the whaling days when the waxes and fats in the animal’s head were cooked down to make machine oils and fixatives in perfume. The purpose of these structures is to generate powerful and focused clicking sounds, which the sperm whale uses for echolocation and communication. In short it is a sonic canon.

Now to the Safari Ltd. 2019 Sea life sculpture. This plastic figure is approximately 9 inches from rostrum to flukes and is painted a uniform dark gray finish. The only other color on this sculpture is the white on the upper ‘lip’ and the black of the eyes. The jaw shape is accurate for the species. The sculpt even has the flap of fat under the chin. The blowhole is properly placed to the left and is shaped like a cursive ‘f’. The texture of the skin aft of the head is quite convincing but it was designed with a computer. I observed that the texture is mirrored on both sides of the figure. The flippers are an odd angle for a sperm whale. A sperm whale will usually hold them to its sides or swing them out like car doors. The figure is probably designed this way so it doesn’t flop over on its side. The flukes are appropriately notched, perhaps indicating this is an older animal that has experienced misadventures with orcas. The head is a little broad for a sperm whale. Underneath the figure does not have well defined genitals. It has only one very small indistinct slit just ahead of the keel with the anus at the back like the single slit of a female. The rest of the underside is ill defined leaving it up to the imagination of the person who purchases the sculpture. Safari Ltd. is infamous for not putting mammaries on their animals unless they are familiar farm animals. The body and head conformation is consistent with an adult female sperm whale. It is my opinion that this figure was modeled after a female. The figure is suitable for both collectors or for a child that wants a durable figure of a sperm whale to play with.