Introduction
“[W]hales play a vital role in the overall health of the environment(worldwildlife.org).” The blue whale is one of the most extraordinary creatures to live on the earth. It is the loudest animal on the planet, yet no human can hear its call. It is the largest living being on the earth, yet it eats one of the smallest. It is a mammal, yet it lives underwater. Read on to learn more about this amazing mammal.
Bodies and Habits
Blues whales are the largest creatures that have ever lived. They can weigh over 400,000 pounds and their average length is 70-90 feet, although some can reach 100 feet long. Their tongues can weigh as much as an elephant and their hearts can weigh as much as as a car. Females tend to be a bit larger than males.
Blue whales are mammals so they must come to the surface to breath air. When they exhale air out of their blowholes, water can spurt up to 9 meters into the air.
Even though blue whales are colossal, they are graceful swimmers. They can swim up to 30 kilometers/hour. They usually swim alone or in pairs, but sometimes they travel in small groups. Scientists think they form close attachments and feel emotions.
Blue whales are the loudest animal on the planet but humans cannot hear them. They talk to each other with low frequency pulses of groans and moans that other blue whales can hear from over 1,600 kilometers away.
Babies
Blue whales have babies about once every 3 years. The mother whale is pregnant for 11-12 months and usually has one baby at a time. Blue whale babies, called calves, are about 23 feet long and 5,000-6,000 pounds when first born. In other words, that is one big baby.
The mother whale makes over 50 gallons of milk a day which means the calf can grow up to 10 pounds an hour. Once the calf is about six months old, it stops drinking milk and starts eating like an adult blue whale.
Eating Habits
Blue whales eat some of the smallest marine life in the ocean. These creatures are called krill and are tiny shrimplike creatures. Blue whales eat up to 3,600 kilograms of krill a day and catch their food by diving deep down into the ocean.
The whale’s mouth has plates edged with bristles to help it hold the tiny shrimplike beasts. The whale sucks in water, then spits it out and licks its chops to feast on its meal.
Human Interaction
For most of history, human interaction with the blue whale has gone poorly for the blue whale. Blue whales were hunted for many years for blubber and oil and were almost hunted to extinction. Luckily, they were protected under the 1966 International Whaling convention. Now, the main danger to blue whales is global warming and being hit by large ships. Scientists think only a few thousand blue whales are left in the world.
Conclusion
This report has tried to teach the reader something about the blue whale, one of the most majestic and peaceful creatures to swim in the Earth’s oceans.
I swim, I splash, I watch my brothers be killed one by one. I am the blue whale, forever and always.
Citations
“Blue Whale.” American Cetacean Society. 2006. Web. 08 Apr. 2016. <http://acsonline.org/fact-sheets/blue-whale-2/>.
“Blue Whale.” Blue Whale. 2016. Web. 08 Apr. 2016. <http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/blue-whale/#blue>.
“Blue Whale.” Marine Mammal Center. 2016. Web. 08 Apr. 2016. <www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/cetaceans/blue-whale.html>
“Whale (Blue).” Amazing Facts about Blue Whales | OneKind. OneKind, 2010. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. <http://www.onekind.org/education/animals_a_z/whale_blue/>.