SPERM WHALE

Búrhvalur

Physeter macrocephalus

Length: 12-18 metres

Weight: 20-60 tons

Life expectancy: about 70 years

Status: insufficiently known but still exists in large numbers

• Is the largest of the toothed whales
• Migratory, feeds in Icelandic waters during summer, but in the South Seas during winter
• Stays mostly in deep waters where feeding conditions are good
• Ranges throughout most of the world’s oceans, except the high Arctic. Normally only large males venture to the extreme north and south
• The Icelandic Sperm whales are individual males that have lost in the competition for females. While the females remain in the South Seas along with the stronger males
• Has the largest brain of any animal
• Can dive deeper and longer than any other animal, possibly up to 3,000 metres for more than an hour
• When coming up for the air often remains half-submerged on the surface 5-10 minutes before sounding again.
• Raises fluke high in the air before disappearing into the deep
• Eat as much as a tonn of food every day. Diet includes squids as well as larger fish    

Búrhvalur, pottwal, cachalot, kaskelot, kaskelotti, capodoglio