© Reinhard Dirscherl, CorbisA sperm whale swimming just under the surface in the Caribbean, Dominica.
And, perhaps most unexpectedly of all, sperm whales also produce extraordinarily valuable poop.
Not all sperm whales produce this poop. And at least some - and perhaps most or even all - of those that do, die in the process. But the result is, to humans, little short of golden.
The poop in question is called ambergris, and it is the result of the sperm whale's digestive system doing battle with the remnants of the whale's squid prey. The squids' beaks remain undigested, and make their way through the intestines until, in about one percent of sperm whales, they congeal in an ever-growing mass of fecal matter, a large and immovable object that acts as a rectal dam until, in some cases, the whole thing is (presumably painfully) expelled, while in others it becomes so large that it ultimately proves fatal.
