Sperm Whale
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50 free Sperm Whale trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The sperm whale is the largest toothed animal on the planet, and almost everything about it is a record or a surprise. It makes some of the deepest dives of any mammal, it is louder than any other creature, and it naps in a way that startles divers who come across a sleeping pod. This quiz turns the best sperm whale fun facts into questions with short explanations. It covers how the whale is built, how it hunts in the dark, how mothers and calves live together, and why its oddly shaped head made it a prize catch in the age of whaling. A few questions follow the animal into novels, cartoons and films. The questions start easy enough for children and curious beginners, then get tougher for ocean enthusiasts. Parents and teachers can use them for a class project or a rainy-day quiz, and every answer comes with a fact worth repeating.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which organ of the sperm whale is the largest of its kind in any animal, living or extinct?
Brain
The brain of a sperm whale weighs about 7 kg (15 lb), more than five times as much as a human's. A bigger one does not automatically mean a smarter animal, though.
Q 02In which surprising position do pods of sperm whales nap, drifting just below the surface?
Vertically
Vertically, with heads near the surface, is how sperm whales doze. A 2008 study found some of them are in deep sleep for only about 7 percent of the time.
Q 03Which waxy lump from a sperm whale's gut, sometimes found on beaches, is prized by perfume makers?
Ambergris
Ambergris smells foul when fresh, yet perfume makers value it because it makes a scent last much longer. Only about one sperm whale in a hundred is thought to produce it.
Q 04Sperm whales make their long dives into the dark deep sea mainly to hunt which prey?
Squid
Squid make up most of a sperm whale's meals, and a whale eats about 3% of its body weight every day. As many as 18,000 undigested beaks have been found in one stomach.
Q 05In the novel Moby-Dick, which captain obsessively hunts the white sperm whale that bit off his leg?
Ahab
Ahab commands the whaleship Pequod and nails a gold coin to the mast as a prize for the first sailor to sight the white whale. The chase ends with the whale sinking his ship.
Q 06Which giant sperm whale swallows the woodcarver Geppetto in Disney's 1940 animated film Pinocchio?
Monstro
Monstro keeps Geppetto trapped in his belly until Pinocchio makes him sneeze them out. Deep-voiced singer Thurl Ravenscroft supplied the whale's sounds.
Q 07In SpongeBob SquarePants, which teenage daughter of the crab Mr. Krabs is, oddly, a sperm whale?
Pearl
Pearl lives with her father in a hollow anchor. Creator Stephen Hillenburg, a marine biologist, got the idea for a whale character while supervising whale watches in California.
Q 08Where on its huge square head does the sperm whale have its single, S-shaped blowhole?
On the left
On the left of the snout tip is where the blowhole sits, so a sperm whale's bushy spout shoots forward at an angle instead of straight up.
Q 09Sperm whales are the loudest animals on Earth, but which kind of sound do they make?
Clicks
Clicks made in a sperm whale's nose reach 236 decibels underwater, and the echoes that bounce back reveal prey in total darkness.
Q 10Which US state made the sperm whale its official state animal in 1975, honouring its whaling past?
Connecticut
Connecticut ranked second only to Massachusetts in American whaling during the 1800s, sending ships around the globe from New London and Mystic.
Q 11Which name is given to pictures that sailors engraved on sperm whale teeth during long voyages?
Scrimshaw
Scrimshaw began as a way to pass idle hours at sea: whalers scratched pictures into a tooth with a sailing needle, then rubbed in pigment to make the lines stand out.
Q 12Mocha Dick, a real white sperm whale feared by whalers, was named for an island off which country?
Chile
Chile's Mocha Island gave the scarred white whale his name. By one account he survived at least 100 clashes with whalers before he was finally killed in 1838.
Q 13In which Pacific nation are polished sperm whale teeth, called tabua, prized as ceremonial gifts?
Fiji
Fiji's tabua are traditionally given as gifts of atonement or esteem, and they once helped to settle negotiations between rival chiefs.
Q 21Where do the biggest male sperm whales spend most of the year, far from the females and calves?
Cold polar waters
Cold polar waters offer richer feeding, so males drift toward the poles as they age, while the females and young stay in warmer waters all year.
Q 22Sperm whale milk is so rich in fat that its thick texture is compared to which dairy food?
Cottage cheese
Cottage cheese is the usual comparison: the milk is about 36% fat, against 4% in cow's milk, so it holds together in seawater long enough for the calf to drink it.
Q 23Tags show that sperm whales chase prey at the bottom of deep dives while swimming in which position?
Upside down
Q 14Kaikōura, one of the world's best-known places to watch sperm whales, is a town in which country?
New Zealand
New Zealand's Kaikōura lies near a deep undersea canyon. Its whale-watch business began when local Māori families mortgaged their homes to fund one small boat.
Q 15The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale, a group that also includes which smaller sea mammals?
Dolphins
Dolphins and porpoises are toothed whales too, catching prey one at a time rather than filtering mouthfuls of water as the big baleen whales do.
Q 16Like which land animal do sperm whale females and young live in families while males live apart?
Elephants
Elephants and sperm whales both build their herds around the females, while grown males wander off alone and come back mainly to breed.
Q 17While a sperm whale mother makes a long feeding dive, who usually guards her calf at the surface?
Other pod members
Other pod members babysit while the mother hunts, and calves have even been seen suckling from females that are not their own mothers.
Q 18How do sperm whales arrange themselves to shield a calf or injured companion from attackers?
In a circle
In a circle, heads together and tails pointing out like the petals of a daisy, is the classic defence. It is called the marguerite formation, after the flower.
Q 19The oil from a sperm whale's head was once the finest material for making which household item?
Candles
Candles made of spermaceti burned so brightly and evenly that an 1860 British law used one as the measuring stick for light, creating the unit called candlepower.
Q 20Adult male sperm whales weigh about three times as much as females and are known by which name?
Bulls
Bulls keep growing until about age 50, decades after the females stop, and end up as much as half as long again as their mates.
Upside down, a sperm whale may be able to look up and pick out its prey as dark shapes against the faint light from the surface.
Q 24Most big whales have smooth skin, but how does the skin on a sperm whale's back usually look?
Wrinkled
Wrinkled skin covers much of a sperm whale behind the head, and whale watchers liken it to a giant prune.
Q 25What are the two lobes of a sperm whale's tail, lifted high out of the water before a dive, called?
Flukes
Flukes on a sperm whale are triangular, very thick and, relative to its body, larger than those of any other whale.
Q 26Sperm whale poo fertilises the sea surface, feeding which tiny drifters that soak up carbon?
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton thrive on the iron in sperm whale droppings, then take up carbon from the air and carry it to the deep sea when they die and sink.
Q 27In Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, which submarine attacks a group of sperm whales?
Nautilus
Nautilus charges into the sperm whales, which Verne paints as savage hunters, to protect a pod of southern right whales.
Q 28How does the pygmy sperm whale, a much smaller cousin of the sperm whale, try to escape predators?
Releases an inky cloud
It releases an inky cloud: a sac in its gut holds up to 12 litres of reddish-brown fluid that it squirts out to confuse an attacker.
Q 29Which New England island became a famous home port for sperm whalers during the 1700s?
Nantucket
Nantucket turned deep-sea whaling into a rich industry in the 18th century, sending crews on voyages that lasted years and reached as far as the South Pacific.
Q 30Which part of a sperm whale's body is the longest of its kind in the animal kingdom?
Intestine
The intestine of a large sperm whale can run to more than 300 metres, about three times the length of a football pitch.