Ambergris is produced inside its body. That's quite an eye-opener.
Sperm whale (scientific name: Physeter macrocephalus): enormous head, relatively small lower jaw, with teeth only on the lower jaw. It feeds mainly on squid. Body length can reach 18 m, body weight over 50 tonnes; it is the largest toothed whale, the head can account for 1/3 of the body, and it has no dorsal fin; its diving ability is extremely strong, making it the mammal that dives the deepest and the longest. Its body is thick and short, it moves slowly and clumsily, and it is easy to hunt and kill. Body length 18-25 m, body weight 20-25 tonnes. Its body colour is greyish yellow, the head is especially large and wedge-shaped, accounting for 1/3 of the body length; the body is thick and short, it moves slowly and clumsily, and it is easy to hunt and kill. The existing population has fallen from the original 850,000 to 430,000.
Sperm whales sometimes also "carry" a strange substance in their bodies, generally a grey or slightly black waxy matter; when first taken from the body it smells extremely unpleasant, and after drying it becomes amber-coloured with a sweet-sour smell. This is the famous ambergris. Ambergris itself has little fragrance, but when burned it gives off fragrance everywhere, closely resembling musk yet more subtle and lingering than musk; things fumigated with it keep their fragrance for a long time without dispersing, and this is where the name "sperm whale" comes from. Ambergris is a precious traditional Chinese medicine, used to treat cough and wheezing with reversed qi, pain in the heart and abdomen, and other conditions.
There is a story about the sperm whale: during the Second World War, a US warship was travelling at night when the hull suddenly shook violently. Many officers and men thought it had struck a reef or hit a mine, so they all sprang into action, preparing to jump into the sea to save their lives. After inspection, it turned out that the warship had collided with a sperm whale that was sound asleep.
So do sperm whales really sleep? And how do they sleep? This question puzzled biologists for many years, until 2008, when their "collective sleeping" posture was recorded, and this image shocked everyone deeply! Professional underwater photographer Franco captured the way sperm whales sleep: they suddenly stop swimming in unison and rest in a vertical position.
This rare image was not recorded until 2008. Scientists point out that in a sperm whale's entire life, it spends only about 7% of its time sleeping, and each sleep is very brief, only 6-24 minutes. In that instant, it is as if everything in the world has stopped for it, and one feels the mystery of life.
Scientists and diving photographers also made use of this brief window to observe the sleeping behaviour of sperm whales. After they uploaded the sleeping postures of these incredible creatures, they received a huge response from the public.
The image of sperm whales sleeping vertically in groups is astonishing. The creatures of nature truly still hold many mysteries we do not know!
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