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    Blue Whale

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    anorerosemarie17
    Blue whales are the largest animals ever known, reaching up to 100 feet long and 200 tons. They feed almost exclusively on krill, consuming up to 4 tons per day. Blue whales communicate with low frequency sounds that can be heard from over 1000 miles away. They live in all oceans except the Arctic and can live over 100 years.

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    Blue Whale

    Uploaded by

    anorerosemarie17
    3 views2 pages
    Blue whales are the largest animals ever known, reaching up to 100 feet long and 200 tons. They feed almost exclusively on krill, consuming up to 4 tons per day. Blue whales communicate with low frequency sounds that can be heard from over 1000 miles away. They live in all oceans except the Arctic and can live over 100 years.

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    Blue whales are the largest animals ever known, reaching up to 100 feet long and 200 tons. They feed almost exclusively on krill, consuming up to 4 tons per day. Blue whales communicate with low frequency sounds that can be heard from over 1000 miles away. They live in all oceans except the Arctic and can live over 100 years.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    3 views2 pages

    Blue Whale

    Uploaded by

    anorerosemarie17
    Blue whales are the largest animals ever known, reaching up to 100 feet long and 200 tons. They feed almost exclusively on krill, consuming up to 4 tons per day. Blue whales communicate with low frequency sounds that can be heard from over 1000 miles away. They live in all oceans except the Arctic and can live over 100 years.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    WHAT IS THE BLUE WHALE?

    Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent
    marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. Their tongues
    alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.

    DIET OF KRILL
    Blue whales reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of
    tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale
    consumes about 4 tons of krill a day.

    Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material,
    called baleen, attached to their upper jaws. The giant animals feed by first gulping an enormous
    mouthful of water, expanding the pleated skin on their throat and belly to take it in. Then the
    whale's massive tongue forces the water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates.
    Thousands of krill are left behind—and then swallowed.

    COLORING AND APPEARANCE


    Blue whales look true blue underwater, but on the surface their coloring is more a mottled blue-
    gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish hue from the millions of microorganisms that take
    up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that
    ends in wide, triangular flukes.

    VOCALIZATION AND BEHAVIOR


    Blue whales live in all the world's oceans, except the Arctic, occasionally swimming in small
    groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and
    undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives.

    These graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour, but accelerate to
    more than 20 miles an hour when they are agitated. Blue whales are among the loudest animals
    on the planet. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it’s thought that, in good
    conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1,000 miles away. Scientists think they use
    these vocalizations not only to communicate, but, along with their excellent hearing, to sonar-
    navigate the lightless ocean depths.

    BLUE WHALE CALVES


    Calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year
    inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons and stretching to 25
    feet. It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds every day for its first
    year.

    LONGEVITY
    Blue whales are among Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by
    counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a close estimate of the
    animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was determined to be around 110
    years old. Average lifespan is estimated at around 80 to 90 years.

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