 The package delivered to Malcolm came from New Zealand colleagues who had examined a dead sperm whale that had washed up on a beach north of Wellington. Aware of his interest and knowing he was here, they sent a generous sample of the stomach contents. Malcolm dumped the smelly stew into dishes on a table that he prudently placed outside the field station. The brown stomach fluid was thick with beaks. Malcolm began to count and then to estimate. “I believe there are about 10,000,” he says, “but I could be off by a couple of thousand either way.” The beaks build up in a whale’s stomach. What finally happens to the beaks is not known. By one theory, the whale produces ambergris—a waxy substance once used extensively in perfume making—to coat the sharp-edged beaks and then vomits them.
|
© 1997 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.