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Ambergris in dried form. Ambergris (/ ˈ æ m b ər ɡ r iː s / or / ˈ æ m b ər ɡ r ɪ s /; Latin: ambra grisea; Old French: ambre gris), ambergrease, or grey amber is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. [1]
Spermaceti / s p ər m ə ˈ s iː t i ˌ-ˈ s ɛ-/ is a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller quantities, in the oils of other whales). Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head. This organ may contain as much as 1,900 litres (500 US gal) of spermaceti. [1]
Historically, whaling took a heavy toll on sperm whale populations. Prior to the early 18th century, sperm whales were hunted in Japan and Indonesia. Legend has it that sometime in the early 18th century, supposed to be not far from 1712, Captain Christopher Hussey, while cruising for right whales near shore, was blown offshore by a northerly wind, where he encountered a school of sperm whales ...
Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. [1] Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil , which comes from the Dutch word traan ("tear drop"). Sperm oil , a special kind of oil obtained from the head cavities of sperm whales , differs chemically from ordinary whale oil: it is composed mostly of liquid wax .
Bovine testicles offered for sale on an Italian market. Artist Rick Gibson preferred eating human testicles instead. In 1988, artist Rick Gibson tried to eat a slice of human testicle in Vancouver in 1989 but was stopped by the police. [206] However, the charge was dropped and he finally ate a testicle hors d'œuvre in Vancouver, in 1989. [207]
As a way to put off attackers (or to remove indigestible stomach content), sharks can turn their stomachs inside out and vomit up their latest meal. Some predators eat the vomit instead of the shark. The electroreception in sharks is so sensitive that they often mistake the minute electrical charge caused by rusting boat hulls for prey.
The sperm whale's brain is the largest in the world, five times heavier than a human brain. The sperm whale brain is the largest known of any modern or extinct animal, weighing on average about 7.8 kilograms (17 lb) [61] [62] (with the smallest known weighing 6.4 kilograms (14 lb) and the largest known weighing 9.2 kilograms (20 lb)), [44] [45 ...
A researcher fires a biopsy dart at an orca.The dart will remove a small piece of the whale's skin and bounce harmlessly off the animal. Cetology (from Greek κῆτος, kētos, "whale"; and -λογία, -logia) or whalelore (also known as whaleology) is the branch of marine mammal science that studies the approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in the scientific ...