Sperm whales don't like Megamouth sharks?

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2008-02-17 06:04pm

The squid thread reminded me of this, so I thought I would post it. It's kind of old, so I'm putting it in here. Sperm whales are bad ass. It's like they're kind of mean though... the big bad mammals gang up and pick on the overgrown fish.

Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, 30th August ’98, 10:00 am – we were studying the whale population with a group of WWF Italy volunteers off the coast of the island of Nain in the Bunaken archipelago (124° 50’ 3” N, 1° 46’ W) when we witnessed a remarkable event. While looking for cetaceans we encountered three examples of Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) “attacking” a shark. As our boat approached, the 10-12 meters long, the Sperm whales swam off.

At this point we clearly saw the profile of a large shark (about 5 meters). The base of the dorsal fin and the gills showed signs of the whales’ attack and the shark was swimming slowly and still rather bewildered at the surface. It was probably a planktivorous shark with a large head in proportion to its body. It had white marks on the tips of its fins and mouth and a dark triangular mark under its throat. The upper lobe of the caudal fin was very large. We had found an extremely rare specimen of Megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios)!

Megamouth sharks are plankton-feeder deep sea animals. It is very rare to meet and observe them near the surface where they usually come only at night, following small crustacean preys. Sperm whales are usually considered squid feeders but there are a few notes about small deep sea sharks’ presence in their diet.

Since the last sighting of Megachasma pelagios (the eleventh) in Cagayan de Oro (Philippines) on 21st February 1998, this is one of the few sightings in open sea as opposed to animals that were stranded or caught in fishing nets. It is also a significant event for studies of the relationship between whales and sharks – was it an attack, playfulness or just curiosity that attracted the Sperm whales to the Megamouth shark?

Article

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2008-02-17 07:42pm

I am sorry, but this does not seem like a testing thread.

Zor

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-17 08:34pm

Zor wrote:I am sorry, but this does not seem like a testing thread.

Zor

Then use your powers as a moderator to move it.

Oh wait, that's right...

Supes: I wouldn't be surprised if they fed on sharks, really. Aren't they the largest predatory mammals with teeth? As opposed to blue whales, which use baleen? Are are blue whales even predators? I mean they prey on krill...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2008-02-17 08:44pm

At the least, sperm whales are largest whale species possessing actual teeth.

And those mother fuckers don't take shit from nobody.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2008-02-17 09:02pm

I wonder if anyone has ever documented a Sperm Whale go up against a Great White or Tiger shark. If I remember correctly, Orcas routinely kill Great White sharks, so I imagine it wouldn't be much of a stretch for a Spermy.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-17 09:19pm

Superman wrote:I wonder if anyone has ever documented a Sperm Whale go up against a Great White or Tiger shark. If I remember correctly, Orcas routinely kill Great White sharks, so I imagine it wouldn't be much of a stretch for a Spermy.

Wouldn't surprise me if they attacked white sharks on occasion, being that they are deep ocean animals. Especially if there is a whale cub (they're cubs, right?) involved.

Orcas are just fucking assholes. I have no doubt that they are intelligent animals, because just like dolphins, chimps, and humans, they routinely kill things for the sheer fun of it.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2008-02-17 11:02pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:At the least, sperm whales are largest whale species possessing actual teeth.

And those mother fuckers don't take shit from nobody.

There have been a few incidents of sperm whales attacking whaling ships, and at least one incident of a sperm whale attacking and sinking a whaling ship.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-17 11:09pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:At the least, sperm whales are largest whale species possessing actual teeth.

And those mother fuckers don't take shit from nobody.
There have been a few incidents of sperm whales attacking whaling ships, and at least one incident of a sperm whale attacking and sinking a whaling ship.

SS Essex. Fucked those bastards up good. That's what 'Moby Dick' was based on.

Though to be fair to the whales, it was in self defense.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2008-02-18 12:06am

Topic moved, since Zor is right and this didn't belong in Testing.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » 2008-02-18 02:29am

Orcas will occasionally kill larger oceanic animals like whales or sharks, but not sperm whales. This lets you know exactly who the kings of the seas are. Fuckers are pretty much on the top of the pile of killing machines in the deep.

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2008-02-18 02:42am

Flagg wrote:
Zor wrote:I am sorry, but this does not seem like a testing thread.

Zor
Then use your powers as a moderator to move it.

Oh wait, that's right...

When the fuck did that happen?

Also, there's innuendo to this story, but I just don't have the steam to make something out of it.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2008-02-18 04:00am

Zablorg wrote:When the fuck did that happen?

He's having a larf. Zor has never been a moderator.

I wonder if anyone has ever documented a Sperm Whale go up against a Great White or Tiger shark.

You like one sided slaughters, it seems. The Great White is a mean motherfucker, six metres long. That's a third of the length of a Sperm Whale bull today. We have evidence of a bull from the past with a jaw slightly over five metres long. Great Whites have got nothing.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2008-02-18 09:24am

Have Sperm Whales ever attacked people, not just the boats, but people swimming as Great Whites have been known to? Do Sperm whales have similar "bite to taste" behaviour, or do their mammalian senses work out what you are like dolphins and porpoises seem to?

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-18 09:30am

I could maybe see a great white going after a sperm whales' calf (glares at earlier, more retarded self), but even then, I wouldn't want to be the shark if even a half grown whale was about. I'm pretty sure orcas have been known to attack the calves as prey. I know they do with gray whales.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-18 09:32am

Zuul wrote:Have Sperm Whales ever attacked people, not just the boats, but people swimming as Great Whites have been known to? Do Sperm whales have similar "bite to taste" behaviour, or do their mammalian senses work out what you are like dolphins and porpoises seem to?

I can't imagine they ever would attack humans as prey items. IIRC they pretty much stick to squid and fish.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-02-18 11:29am

Zuul wrote:Have Sperm Whales ever attacked people, not just the boats, but people swimming as Great Whites have been known to? Do Sperm whales have similar "bite to taste" behaviour, or do their mammalian senses work out what you are like dolphins and porpoises seem to?

Smart money would be on 'no'. They might find a human tasty (or then again, not...they do eat giant squid, so maybe they prefer more ammonia in their food), but given their size and preferred area, I doubt you'll find humans swimming anywhere near where a sperm whale might be, normally. Sharks are smaller, and can function closer-in to land; cachalots are pretty much deep-water animals.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2008-02-18 11:41am

Well megamouth sharks are relatives peaceful if I recall correctly. That sperm whale must have been an asshole.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2008-02-18 12:52pm

ArmorPierce wrote:Well megamouth sharks are relatives peaceful if I recall correctly. That sperm whale must have been an asshole.

They eat plankton by filter-feeding. Aggression would be counterproductive. I mean, what, are you going to attack plankton? How would that even work? It's just a waste of energy. And the sperm whales very well could just have been assholes. With greater intelligence comes a greater ability to do things for fun, and fun for assholes is often cruel. Dolphins will attack sharks for the hell of it, after all.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2008-02-18 01:12pm

ArmorPierce wrote:That sperm whale must have been an asshole.

It wasn't just one, it was a group of three.

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2008-02-18 05:11pm

Superman wrote:I wonder if anyone has ever documented a Sperm Whale go up against a Great White or Tiger shark. If I remember correctly, Orcas routinely kill Great White sharks, so I imagine it wouldn't be much of a stretch for a Spermy.

Ten-foot sharks have been found whole in the bellies of sperm whales before. You'd better believe it's no stretch for them.

Zuul wrote:Have Sperm Whales ever attacked people, not just the boats, but people swimming as Great Whites have been known to? Do Sperm whales have similar "bite to taste" behaviour, or do their mammalian senses work out what you are like dolphins and porpoises seem to?

Spermies are mostly carrion eaters, analogous to bears in their environment for their size and feeding habits. They're ill-equipped for bite-to-taste methods, having only teeth on their bottom jaw and sockets for the teeth in their upper jaw, and I'd wager that they'd sooner swallow humans whole than nip them.

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2008-02-18 05:13pm

ArmorPierce wrote:Well megamouth sharks are relatives peaceful if I recall correctly. That sperm whale must have been an asshole.

That or they knew it was easy prey and pretty much entirely defenseless? I doubt they'd have declined to eat it. I don't know where everyone's getting the idea that they were just bullying the shark.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2008-02-18 10:16pm

TithonusSyndrome wrote:
ArmorPierce wrote:Well megamouth sharks are relatives peaceful if I recall correctly. That sperm whale must have been an asshole.
That or they knew it was easy prey and pretty much entirely defenseless? I doubt they'd have declined to eat it. I don't know where everyone's getting the idea that they were just bullying the shark.

The problem is that I don't think they can tear chunks up and actually eat the shark. IIRC, they swallow giant squid whole.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2008-02-18 10:24pm

TithonusSyndrome wrote:I don't know where everyone's getting the idea that they were just bullying the shark.

It's not that far fetched of an idea. Lots of animals torture the hell out of smaller ones, apparently just to do it. My cat used to catch the same mouse repeatedly; she would never eat it, nor would she injure it to the point of death. She would just catch it, gnaw on it, toss it around, then eventually get bored and let it go free.... she really seemed to get a kick out of torturing it. When I tried to get it from her, she would run off with it. Eventually she ended up gnawing it's foot off entirely.

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2008-02-19 11:21am

Mayabird wrote:
ArmorPierce wrote:Well megamouth sharks are relatives peaceful if I recall correctly. That sperm whale must have been an asshole.
They eat plankton by filter-feeding. Aggression would be counterproductive. I mean, what, are you going to attack plankton? How would that even work? It's just a waste of energy. And the sperm whales very well could just have been assholes. With greater intelligence comes a greater ability to do things for fun, and fun for assholes is often cruel. Dolphins will attack sharks for the hell of it, after all.

I like the part where they swam away as soon as they saw the boat approaching, bullies.

The Original Nex · Post by **The Original Nex** » 2008-02-19 12:50pm

The killing of other creatures by cetaceans for seeming no reason other than sport is documented by science. Dolphins off the coast of Britain have been recorded tormenting smaller porpoises, ramming them out of the water with their noses at bone-crushing speeds until the porpoise is dead and then simply moving on, leaving the dead animal. Orcas are known to behave this way with seals and sea lions, playing with the pinniped's corpse even if it has no intention of feeding. It would be unsurprising to me if these Sperm Whales were behaving in a similar manner with this planktivorous shark.