Blue whales interesting facts about them. Incredible facts about whales or what you definitely did not know about the largest mammals on the planet. Where does the whale live

Due to its size and mass, the Blue Whale is considered the largest living creature that has ever lived on Earth. Its weight reaches over two hundred tons and over 30 meters long. One of his tongue weighs like an African elephant, and his heart is the size of a small car.

Peculiarities

In nature, there are three main subspecies of this species of whales - Southern, Northern and Dwarf, as well as the African subspecies.

Whale skin is not quite blue. It is gray with a slight blue tint. But, if you look at the whale from above, when it is under a small layer of water, the effect is created that its body glows with blue light. Thanks to this, he got his name - the Blue Whale.

The skin has a beautiful patterned pattern that is unique (like human fingerprints), which makes it possible for scientists to distinguish one member of this species from another.

Scientists have found that the Blue whale, unlike other whales, continues to feed in the winter.

Can survive under favorable conditions about 100 years.

Despite the fact that scientists are actively researching this giant, the Blue whale remains one of the least studied inhabitants of our planet.

Habitat

Blue whales live in half of the planet's ocean basin. They can be found off the coast of Australia, New Zealand, the USA, China, Russia and many other island and mainland states and countries. Whales spend most of their time at depth, but being mammals (like all whale species) they need to rise to the surface from time to time to fill their lungs with air to saturate the body with oxygen.

Nutrition

Like all cetaceans, the blue whale feeds on krill(small crustaceans). Thanks to the folded surface inside the mouth, it can swallow up to a hundred tons of water with these small creatures. After that, he simply lies in the water (like a giant tadpole) straining water through a whalebone. The strained krill is swallowed, after which the whale takes on its former shape. But you should not regard the whale as a thoughtless vacuum cleaner sucking up water, it is a sensitive, dexterous predator. After all, it only at first glance seems that the krill does nothing and is just waiting to be eaten. In fact, every animal in a krill aggregation is desperately unwilling to be eaten and is able to run away from pursuit quite quickly.

Until now, it is absolutely not known how whales track and find their prey in the vast ocean expanses.

It is only known that they communicate with each other using ultrasonic waves and are able to hear each other at a distance of up to 30 kilometers.

reproduction

No one has ever seen Blue Whales mating or the birth of a Blue Whale. Filming one of these processes will be a worldwide sensation.

But, nevertheless, there are some successes in this research area. It has been established that females of the Blue whale give birth mainly to one cub. The birth of a new kitten occurs approximately every two years, and the gestation period lasts 12 months.

Childbirth takes place near the water surface, and the cub is born tail first. The mass of a whale at birth is from 2 to 3 tons, and the length is about eight meters.

Scientists believe that due to the small number of their species, blue whales can mate with representatives of other species of whales. There have already been cases when people met such hybrids, but this phenomenon has not yet been completely studied.

Also, it is not completely clear whether blue whales create married couples for life, like some representatives of marine mammals, but the fact that they can hunt together and protect each other from predators has been noted.

Enemies

The only enemy of the Blue Whale in nature is the killer cetacean dolphins - killer whales. These bloodthirsty predators prey on everyone without exception and they are not at all embarrassed by the gigantic size of the Blue Whale. They attack him in a flock of up to 20-30 individuals, drive him to the depth and do not allow him to rise to the surface in order to inhale the next portion of air. In the end, the whale loses strength and dies.

These gourmets eat only the tasty and nutritious whale tongue, and the rest of the carcass is of no interest to them.

Another terrible enemy of the Blue Whale is, of course, man. For centuries, people have hunted it as a valuable prey.

In 1965, whaling was banned, but by this time most of the Blue whale population had already been destroyed.

In our time, with the strong development of shipping, more and more sea trade routes began to run in the habitats of these beautiful creatures. It is not uncommon for adults to die from collisions with large cargo ships or giant cruise ships, and their cubs died under the propellers of various sea vessels and smaller ones. Also, the oceanic expanses of our time are littered with all sorts of household waste, and the noise of the propellers of various ships and boats clogs the sound ether, preventing whales from communicating with each other. All this adversely affects the global population of the Blue whale.

To date, the Blue whale is listed in the Red Book and is considered an endangered species.

Blue whales are perhaps one of the most majestic creatures on our planet. Their gigantic size and absolute peacefulness command respect. By the way, we do not know much about these ocean inhabitants, but the information already available about them is quite capable of surprising us.

1. Even taking into account the dinosaurs, the modern blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth. The length of blue whales is 30-32 m, the maximum recorded weight is 173 tons. Compared to them, dinosaurs are more fragile and lighter creatures.

2. The tongue of a blue whale weighs as much as an African elephant, which is at least 2.7 tons. In addition, scientists examined the body of a dead whale, 23 meters long, trapped in an ice trap and found that its heart was the size of a golf cart. It is possible that the whale's heart will be larger than the size of a car.

3. Blue whales can eat 500 kg of krill in one gulp, which is half a million calories. They mainly feed on shrimp, crustaceans, small fish and squid. Their mouths hold 90 tons of food and water, and an adult whale can eat 40 million calories of krill per day.

4. Blue whales feed seasonally. While migrating for breeding, they may not eat for six months. Blue whales predominantly "diet" with Antarctic krill. During this feeding season, they take in more energy than they use, and thus build up substantial reserves of this energy, which they then use during their transition to warmer ocean regions in order to continue the cetacean lineage.

5. Blue whales are also born huge. Kittens at birth weigh 2.5 tons, their length is 7 m, they gain 3-4 kg of weight per hour and grow at a rate of 4 cm per day! Female blue whales typically give birth every two or three years at the start of winter, and their gestation period lasts 10 to 12 months. Every day, whales drink from 380 to 570 liters of milk. After six months, the "babies" double in size, and by this time they are weaned.

6. Males hold the Guinness World Record for having the largest penis in the world, ranging in length from 2.5 to 3 meters, but only 30-36 cm in diameter. The penis is usually hidden inside the body and comes out during mating. It is assumed that it is made by nature from a tough fibrous tissue and its elasticity is used for an erection, and not the blood flow. By the way, in one whale ejaculation up to 20 liters of sperm.

7. Compared to other parts of the body, the brain of blue whales is very small and weighs only 6.92 kg, which is 0.007% of body weight. However, scientists believe that cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are probably a lot smarter than we think. The difference between cetaceans and primates is that in primates primary perception is visual and primary means of communication is auditory, while in cetaceans both perception and communication are auditory. Their auditory abilities are so advanced that they can send and receive images through auditory communication. In fact, cetaceans send and receive 20 times more information than humans.

8. There were once about 239,000 blue whales in Antarctica. After the invention of explosive harpoons in 1864, whales were at risk. Now there are from 10 to 25 thousand of them all over the world. In 1966 whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission. However, whales face other threats, such as collisions with ships, often fatal, or global warming, which could affect their food source.

9. Blue whales are convinced loners. Unlike other whales, they travel either alone or in pairs (mother and calf or two adult whales), but not in groups. Even when they travel in pairs, they keep several kilometers apart. If they gather in groups, then exclusively for the purpose of subsistence. In places with a high concentration of food, up to 50 whales were seen at the same time in a small area.

10. Blue whales are the loudest animals in the world. They can hear each other's signals at a distance of up to 1600 km. Being loners by nature, blue whales have developed an exceptional communication system. Their signals to each other at low frequencies travel hundreds of kilometers in the water. However, scientists believe that recently this distance has decreased to only 160 km due to shipping and noise pollution.

Whales belong to the order of cetaceans, they are mammals that are fully adapted to aquatic life. It is believed that whales, like dolphins and porpoises, descended from land animals that returned to the aquatic environment about 50 million years ago, having lived millions of years on earth before that.

When a whale dives into the water column, its heart rate slows down to 10 beats per minute. Blood feeds only the heart and brain.

• A distinctive feature of any whale is its tail. Each of them is unique and not similar to the others. Everything is different: from incisions and furrows to the unique pattern left by scars.

  Due to the fact that whales, like dolphins, simply need to occasionally rise to the surface to breathe, only half of their brains can sleep at any given time.

  Whales are capable of not sleeping for three months, not eating for eight months, not breathing for up to two hours. But despite all this, they can easily reach several thousand kilometers.

  

  The blue whale is the largest of all whales and is also considered the largest animal ever to have lived in the world. An adult blue whale sometimes reaches up to 108 feet (33 meters) in length and can weigh around 200 tons.

  There is a theory that in ancient times, whales gave birth on land. And all thanks to the discovery in the mountains of Pakistan. Fossils were found there in the form of the remains of a male and his pregnant female.

  Sperm whales are able to dive up to 3.5 kilometers underwater. Their bodies have unique physiological adaptations to enable them to survive in the cold and withstand high water pressure. They limit the functioning of the brain and other vital organs. For example, they compress the lungs in the chest to resist the pressure of water.

  A whale can eat up to 1 ton of crustacean (krill) per day. This corresponds to a million calories.

  

  Whales do not drink seawater; instead, they extract water from their food by metabolizing fats.

  

  The penis of a blue whale is 3 m long, with a diameter of 1/3 m. Although the females themselves are much longer than the males.

  Scientists still don't know why whales sometimes jump out of the water. Ancient whalers thought they were teasing fishermen in this way, but biologists have suggested that this is just a demonstration of endurance and strength in front of other whales.

  

  The only singing mammal in the world is a whale, well, after a man, of course. Their song can last from 6 minutes to 30 minutes. The most interesting thing is that they do not have vocal cords.

  A whale's pregnancy lasts 11 months. Cubs are born 7.5 m in length and 2-3 tons in weight. Every day the kitten drinks 380 liters, and so for 7 months.

  

Whales - representatives of large marine animals belonging to mammals, the order of cetaceans, are distinguished by their large size: their average length is 25 m, there are individuals growing up to 33 m. The average weight is from 90 to 120 tons. Proponents of the theory of evolution believe that these marine animals are descended from land mammals from the artiodactyl order. Their closest relatives on land are the hippopotamuses, they share a common ancestor that lived more than 54 million years ago. Whales moved into the water 50 million years ago.

mammals

1. Toothed - a distinctive characteristic is the ability to feel the environment around them with the help of echolocation. The representatives of this contract include dolphins and porpoises, they feed on large fish and squid.
2. Baleen are the largest of all cetaceans. On the upper jaw, they have keratin whiskers, which are used to filter water and when eating plankton.

As mammals, whales have the following traits:

1. Air is breathed through the lungs. They need to float to the surface from time to time to replenish their supply of oxygen. But the body is adapted to a long stay under water - it can do without an additional portion of air for up to 40 minutes, but when the animal is in danger or you need to dive for food, then longer (up to two hours). Due to air retention, whales can dive hundreds of meters deep.
2. Warm-blooded. Since they often live in cold waters, to maintain body temperature, they can accumulate a significant amount of fat. Because of this fat, whales were massively exterminated in past centuries (it was used as a lubricant for lighting). Oil extraction made whale hunting less profitable and whaling was greatly reduced.
3. They have mammary glands, feed babies with milk for seven months. During the day, a baby dolphin drinks up to one liter of milk, a baby fin whale - up to 100 liters, and a baby blue whale - up to 200 liters. The fat content of milk is up to 50%, the protein in it is 13%. Human milk contains 4% fat and 1% protein.
4. The blue whale, as well as other cetaceans, have hair, although not on the whole body and it is mild.

Appearance

Interesting facts about whales - appearance. The body shape is streamlined. Two fins in the chest area and two on the tail. The tail allows the whale to move forward due to wave-like movements in the vertical plane, while in fish these movements are in the horizontal plane.

The blue whale has a special pigment in its skin to absorb ultraviolet rays, and they seem to “sunbathe”.

The volume of blood in an animal is approximately 8 thousand liters, and the diameter of its blood vessels reaches 40 centimeters.

The eyes are small in size, they are protected from salt water by a greasy tear.

The tongue weighs up to 4 tons, the heart - about 800 kilograms, the brain weighs up to 9 kilograms.

Behavior

Whales sleep, but not completely, because when one part of the brain sleeps, the other part works and is responsible for vital processes, such as breathing. Therefore, while sleeping, whales can rise to the surface to take a breath of air.

When a whale dives to a great depth, its lungs are compressed, the work of the heart slows down to 10 beats per minute, this allows it to withstand water pressure and saves oxygen.

Sperm whales feed on squid, for which they can dive very deep.

The sense of smell is not developed, unlike sharks, which can smell blood at a distance of up to two kilometers.

Whales live for a long time, up to 70 years. Despite their long life, their numbers have been greatly reduced until recently due to destruction by whalers. Pregnancy lasts up to one year, one baby is born, twins are born very rarely, about one percent of cases.

Thanks to the reserves of fat, whales can go without food for up to six months.

During the filtering of shrimp, the whale does not drink. The animal receives moisture from food.

Dolphins sometimes accompany ships out of interest.

Whales make loud noises up to 180 decibels, jet engine noise is only 140 decibels. Bass-type sound travels through water up to 1,000 kilometers. Along with the audible range, whales also use low sounds that are not perceived by the human ear.

The blue whale is famous for its fountains. Whale fountains are hot air from the lungs of a whale. When the whale blows air, a fountain of steam forms on the surface of the cold water. And these mammals inhale up to 2 thousand liters of air in one breath. The column of the fountain reaches 6 meters.

White whales are distinguished by their melodious sounds, sometimes they say that they can sing. They make these beautiful sounds continuously for up to half an hour, so they were given the name "sea canaries". However, these whales do not have vocal cords. Interestingly, each group of whales publishes its own musical compositions, but they can also repeat the “songs” of others.

Killer whales communicate with each other using a system of sound signals. Different herds have their own "language".

Killer whales can attack humans. But cases of attack in nature are very rare, one might say exceptional. But in captivity, these whales (they are trained like dolphins) may have their reasons to be angry with a person, so they can attack, there are even cases of death after the attack of these marine animals.

Majestic whales have been haunting the minds of scientists ever since they were first discovered. Unfortunately, their exclusivity did not help them escape the barbaric extermination, and the number of these marine mammals declined menacingly during the heyday of whaling. Fortunately, hunting for them is now prohibited, and it is hoped that their population will eventually recover.

Whale Facts

• Blue whales are the largest living creatures on Earth.
• The desire to see the migration of whales with your own eyes is the main reason why tourists from all over the world arrive in the remote Kingdom of Tonga every year. It is past the islands of the Tongan archipelago that the migration routes of these amazing animals lie.
• Contrary to popular belief, whales are not related to dolphins. But predatory killer whales are really considered their relatives (facts about killer whales).
• The mass of an adult blue whale can reach 120-150 tons, and the body length is 30-33 meters. For comparison, an 8-storey residential building usually does not exceed 27-28 meters in height.
• The ancestors of modern whales plowed the waters of the oceans 55 million years ago.
• Over the past few centuries, whales have become somewhat smaller, since the largest individuals are more likely than others to become victims of whalers, and size is an inherited trait.
• Whales never fully sleep, as they need to periodically rise to the surface for fresh air. Their sleep is more like a half-dream. And they don’t seem to need it too much, because they can not sleep for 3 months. If so, of course.
• A thick layer of fat protects whales from the cold, so they are able to swim even in the coldest seas (Facts about the seas).
• The tongue of an adult blue whale, which can weigh up to 3.5-4 tons, can accommodate up to 50 adults.
• Whales are also not afraid of starvation. They are able to go without food for 8-10 months.
• A newborn baby blue whale weighs about two tons.
• According to genetic studies, whales are descended from terrestrial artiodactyls. Yes, evolutionary processes are sometimes amazing, this is a fact.
• During inspiration, the whale draws in about 2,000 liters of air per second.
• The blood of these mammals is more oxygenated than any other living beings.
• A whale cub drinks 300-350 liters of mother's milk daily.
• The skin of blue whales lends itself to tanning. This helps them minimize the effects of harmful UV radiation.
• People have actively hunted these animals for almost a thousand years.
• Exhaling carbon dioxide, bowhead whales create a fountain 5-6 meters high.
• These creatures inhale the air with the help of a special organ located at the back of the head.
• The diameter of the blood vessels of whales reaches several tens of centimeters.
• The body of an adult blue whale contains about 8,000 liters of blood.
• The size of a whale's heart is comparable to the size of a car.
• The lifespan of these creatures can exceed 100 years.
• Female blue whales give birth to one cub about once every two years, and their pregnancy lasts about 11-12 months. Nobody knows for sure yet.
• Every day, a whale consumes about 8 million calories of food.
• These animals do not have ears, but special organs located on the lower jaw help them to hear sounds.
• They do not have senses such as taste and smell. And they see very badly (facts about vision).
• Adult blue whales are not afraid of any other animals, but their cubs sometimes become victims of killer whales.
• In all the museums of the world, only about 10 skeletons of blue whales are on display.
• Sperm whales, the largest predators on Earth, also belong to whales. In length, they reach 20 meters, and their body weight reaches 50 tons.