|
The blue whale ·
Dolphins · Lungfish · Flying gurnards · Octopus
The blue whale
There are two groups of whale: There is the whale with teeth and the whale with baleen. The blue whale is a baleen whale, which means he does not actively hunt his food. He uses his baleens to strain his food from the water. The sperm whale is a huge creature but it does not compare to the blue whale.
The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. This means in length and width he is larger than the largest dinosaur that ever lived. The Blue whale grows on average to be between seventy-three and ninety feet long. There was a blue whale recorded as being one hundred and nine feet long.
The blue whale has two blowholes that he uses to breathe with; he expels old air and inhales fresh air. The blue whale has approximately six hundred to eight hundred baleen plates that are attached to the upper palate; he uses these plates to screen krill and plankton from the water. He uses his tail as a rotor to use for direction and to push him through the ocean water.
The blue whale lives off the artic shores of Antarctica. This is where there is a plentiful source of krill, since the blue whale eats approximately eight thousand pounds per day, he needs a place where krill is plentiful and can replenish quickly. The cold water of Antarctica allows the krill to replenish quickly. The blue whale does migrate when it is time to breed. He migrates toward the equator then when breeding is accomplished returns to the artic waters to feed.
The blue whale breeds in the midsummer months, the female when pregnant returns to the arctic waters to feed. It takes eleven months for the calf to develop inside the female. The female gives birth to one calf and will not breed for another two to three years, until the calf is ready to venture on its own.
The blue whale is almost extinct, due to rampage hunting and killing of these creatures in the 1800’s. There is a ban on hunting the blue whale. The blue whale’s numbers today are less than two thousand, if you do your addition correctly, it will take approximately fifty years, if the killing of these whales stop, for the population to become even remotely stable. There are laws to protect the animal’s species from total anillation: they are unfortunately implied in most cases, too late for the survival of these wonderful creatures for my children and yours.
|
