anonmadsci asked:

Just found out some whale species sleep vertically in the water, figured it’d fit right in with your cursed biology tag lol

bunjywunjy answered:

yes, but only sperm whales!

these fuckers take their snooze all together as a group, floating vertically in the water column around fifty feet down. we think that they’re the only whales that do this, and they can only pull it off because they’re the only whale that spends their entire lives in a group!

most whales are lonely creatures, speeding through the deep blue sea solo except at certain times of the year- and that means that these whales have to use the dolphin method if they want to catch some Z’s, turning half their brain off at a time and leaving the other half to pilot their body slowly through the water and watch out for predators. and, uh, also to remember to breathe. that’s important.

sounds extremely unrestful, actually. can we introduce these poor guys to the concept of memory foam?

somebody call tempur-pedic and ask if they make a size XXXXXXXL.

but anyway, if you’re lucky enough to be born a sperm whale, you don’t have to do that!

sperm whales are able to enter a much deeper rest state than any other known cetacean, much closer to the traditional mammal deep snooze. they float vertically in the water and keep just enough of their brains on to swim up when they need to breathe, but other than that it’s light’s out for these snoozeville boys.

and the reason for this is very simple, yet profound- who the FUCK is going to pick a fight with a sperm whale pod?

when you spend your entire life hanging with a couple dozen of your closest friends, all of whom are 60-80 feet in length and weigh more than three school buses stacked on top of each other, you get to learn what the term “safety in numbers” really means.