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Sperm whale

From Dwarf Fortress Wiki
Revision as of 05:11, 25 March 2017 by The Duke (talk | contribs)
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Sperm whale
W
Urist likes sperm whales for their vengeful nature.
Portrait

No portrait

Biome

Variations

Sperm whale - Sperm whale man - Giant sperm whale

Attributes

· Aquatic · Beaching

Cannot be tamed 
Size
Birth: 500,000 cm3
Mid: 12,500,000 cm3
Max: 25,000,000 cm3

Age
Adult at: 1
Max age: 70-80
Butchering returns

Food items

Meat 660-940
Fat 140-220
Brain 55-85
Heart 25-45
Lungs 110-160
Intestines 170-250
Liver 55-85
Kidneys 55-85
Tripe 55-85
Sweetbread 26-42
Eyes 2
Spleen 26-42

Raw materials

Bones 160-240
Skull 1
Skin Raw hide

Wikipedia article

This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.

A giant marine mammal with a toothy jaw.
Size Comparison
Sperm Whale Size Comparison.

The sperm whale is the largest "normal" creature in the game, as in one that you actually see in the real world, and produces A LOT of products when butchered. It can be captured with a fish-catching chamber and then air-drowned; out of the water a sperm whale will turn into a corpse relatively quickly. The products of an average sperm whale can feed an entire fortress of dwarves (all 200 of them) for just over a year, making it an enormous boon if you manage to catch one, providing an enormous food surplus and months of work for your bone carvers. Occasionally sperm whales will beach themselves on the shoreline, leaving a corpse ready for butchering by lucky dwarves.


Admired for their vengeful nature and teeth.
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The reason why beached whales drown, in defiance of their mammalian nature, is not sufficiently established. It is possible that the stress of the situation causes a spontaneous and fatal swelling of the tissue surrounding the blowhole. Alternatively, they may be committing suicide, as dolphins have been observed to do, to avoid the more horrible death by dehydration, being crushed by their own weight, or drowning in the returning flood. Rumors that the whales, being very proud creatures, hold their breath in protest, and may even be talked out of their stubbornness by a legendary flatterer and animal trainer are baseless lies, however.