--- title: Whales by kind, the toothed whales: sperm whale, orca, beluga and beaked whales — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Whales by kind, the toothed whales: sperm whale, orca, beluga and beaked whales», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Toothed whales hunt one animal at a time instead of sieving the sea. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Whales by kind, the toothed whales: sp… # Whales by kind, the toothed whales: sperm whale, orca, beluga and beaked whales Lesson 313 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/0/) — Toothed whales hunt one animal at a time instead of sieving the sea. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/1/) — They have one blowhole, and most find their food by sending out clicks and listening for the echoes. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/2/) — The sperm whale, with its huge square head, dives into the black deep to hunt squid; the orca is the biggest dolphin; the white beluga chirps among the Arctic ice. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/3/) — The strangest are the beaked whales: deep divers so shy that some kinds are known only from a few bodies washed up on beaches. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/4/) — Think of Moby Dick, the white whale in the old story: he was a sperm whale, and real sperm whale skin often shows round scars from the suckers of squid they fought in the dark. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/5/) — The sperm whale has the biggest brain of any animal, about 8 kilograms; its huge head works like a sound gun for very loud clicks and was once hunted for its oil, burned in lamps. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/6/) — Sperm whales dive over 2 kilometres deep, often for an hour or more, hunting squid; they store oxygen in their blood and muscles. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/7/) — Sperm whales nap upright near the surface for short spells, often about a quarter of an hour; in 2008 scientists drifted into a group of sleeping sperm whales that did not wake. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/8/) — A sperm whale has about 40 to 52 big teeth, all in the lower jaw, which fit into sockets in the upper jaw; because they swallow squid whole, what the teeth are for is still argued. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/9/) — Ambergris is a waxy lump that forms in a sperm whale's gut around hard squid beaks and can wash ashore; it was used in perfume for hundreds of years, and some countries now ban selling it. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/10/) — The orca, or killer whale, is the biggest member of the dolphin family; different groups eat different food, some only fish, others seals or even other whales. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/11/) — There are no confirmed cases of wild orcas killing a person. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/12/) — Since 2020 a group of orcas off Spain and Portugal has been pushing and biting the rudders of sailing boats and has sunk a few; scientists are not sure why, maybe play or a fashion copied between orcas. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/13/) — The beluga lives in the Arctic, where its white skin hides it among the ice; sailors called belugas sea canaries for their whistles and chirps. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/15/) — There are about 24 kinds of beaked whale; Cuvier's beaked whale holds the record dive for a mammal, about 3 kilometres deep and over 3 hours long. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/313-whales-by-kind-the-toothed-whales-sperm-whale-orca-beluga-and-beaked-whales/16/) — Most beaked whales have almost no teeth; males have just two or four, and the male strap-toothed whale's two teeth grow up over its upper jaw like straps, so it sucks squid in like a vacuum. - ← previous: [Whales by kind, the baleen whales: blue, fin, humpback, grey, right and minke](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/312-whales-by-kind-the-baleen-whales-blue-fin-humpback-grey-right-and-minke/) - next →: [Bats of the world: flying foxes, vampire bats, the bumblebee bat and tent-makers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/314-bats-of-the-world-flying-foxes-vampire-bats-the-bumblebee-bat-and-tent-makers/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)