Sperm Whale Voicethread

(This post was originally posted on the collaborative blog Our World Our Numbers. Be sure to visit that blog for lots of great posts from elementary classes around the world.)

In Mr. Salsich’s class, we have really enjoyed all the great posts about animals from around the world on Our World Our Numbers over the last few weeks!

We wanted to add a post about some animals from Connecticut, but couldn’t decide on which local animals to talk about (there are so many!) So we decided to share information about our state mammal, the sperm whale, even though we don’t really see them here in Connecticut.

Some sperm whale numbers

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Sperm whales are amazing animals. They aren’t the biggest whales in the world (the blue whale is much bigger), but they are the largest of the toothed whales. 

Sperm whales do hold some other “records” though;

1. They have the heaviest brain of any animal (five times heavier than a human brain), 
2. They produce the loudest sounds of any animal, and 
3. They can dive deeper than any other mammal.

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We made a VoiceThread about sperm whales and the incredible number facts that help to explain them. We tried to compare some of these numbers to a typical 3rd grade student (8-9 years old). We hope you enjoy the VoiceThread!

(You can watch it in a larger format here.)

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(Sperm whales are massive, but blue whales are even bigger! Here is a link to an amazing interactive about blue whales from national Geographic.)

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What was the most interesting fact you learned about sperm whales?

If a blue whale weighs over 200 tons, how much heavier than a sperm whale are they? About how many sperm whales would it take to equal that weight? About how many African elephants would it take to equal that weight?

A blue whale can be 100 feet long. How many sperm whales would it take to equal that length?

Do you know any other interesting information about whales?