Whales are mammals that live in the oceans. The largest animal in the world is precisely one of these mammals. Specifically, the blue whale. Did you know that these mammals weigh about 180 tons and that they can measure up to thirty meters in length?
If we continue thinking about its enormous dimensions, we can think about what its organs will measure. If we continue with curiosities, do you know what your tongue can weigh? In many photographs it seems small, because its weight (what their tongue weighs) can be compared, and without exaggeration, to the weight of an elephant! The heart of this marine mammal weighs nothing more and nothing less than about six hundred kilos! They are huge animals.
And the pity, as often happens with many animals today on this planet, is that the blue whale is also an animal that is in danger of extinction.
Although at first glance or through ignorance, one might think that whales, being giants can eat animals, fish or things… huge that are it. A simple myth. From doncomos.com we will try to solve some doubts regarding their diet, way of life and some characteristics (apart from the curiosities that may attract more attention).
The whales’ main food is krill. What is krill? Well, it is neither more nor less than a crustacean. This crustacean is found at the bottom of the sea, among the mud. Now we will tell you how the whales look for it, how they eat it or hunt it and where these crustaceans are usually found.
Instructions
- The whales feed mainly on crustaceans.
- The crustaceans that they eat the most, as their main food, are krill.
- Krill is always found at the bottom of the sea. In muddy areas. And they are in the Bering Sea.
- What the whales do in order to eat these crustaceans is to use their large snout. They move the mud and once everything is mixed, they absorb everything (including what will become their food).
- Once everything is ingested, they release the water and mud through their tongues and with the help of their beards they do not let the food escape.
- They are warm-blooded animals and are the largest animals in the world. Specifically the blue whale is the largest in the world and also has the achievement of being the heaviest. Taking into account that only his heart, he can already weigh more than 600 kilos and his tongue the same as a pachyderm.
- These marine mammals are always born, live and reproduce, in the water.
- They are not fish. Although there is the mistake of calling them fish for the mere fact of living in the sea, in the water, in the oceans… no, they are not fish. They are marine mammals.
- If we take into account that they are mammals, it makes us think that the evolution of the centuries has meant that these animals are now always living in the water, but at some point throughout history, they also had to live on dry land.
- How do whales eat? Well, they take advantage when, for example, schools of crustaceans pass by and what the whales do is open their mouths. Once the prey is captured, thanks to the baleen, it lets out the water that has entered the mouth, but does not release the prey. When it only has food, it swallows it.
What do you need:
- Whales do not have teeth. Instead or what they use instead of teeth because they lack them, they are beards. They are essential for them because, thanks to their beards, they can retain food in their mouths and release the water, obviously without the prey escaping.
- As expected, they are very large animals, not to say giants. Therefore, if they need to eat a lot and, in fact, they not only need it, but they do it. Example is that they need to eat tons of daily food, be careful, a day!
- Apart from feeding on krill, which is one of their main food sources, they also feed on small fish and zooplankton.
- What they eat the most are crustaceans, krill, as we have been saying so far. Every day they can eat about 40,000 kilos of food and they need to get an idea, a beastly amount of kilocalories. An adult person needs an average of two thousand kilocalories a day. Well, the whale, for you to hallucinate a little, needs the bestial amount of half a million kilocalories daily!
- As they are giant animals, very large, they do not have problems those other predators can harm them, eat them or have big problems. In fact, their great enemies are only sharks (if they go in a group), killer whales and, unfortunately, human beings. That is, without a doubt, the biggest of its problems and what is making it an animal in danger of extinction.
- How do whales eat Well, they take advantage when, for example, schools of crustaceans pass by and what the whales do is open their mouths. Once the prey is captured, thanks to the baleen, it lets out the water that has entered the mouth, but does not release the prey. When it only has food, it swallows it.
- If we talk about the food chain, the blue whale, for example, would be at the top crowning it. Because it is a huge animal, it is saved from being attacked and they can with it. But that doesn’t mean its safe. In fact, the only animals that you should be “afraid” of or can eat (and, in fact, this does happen), are sharks (when they go in a group) and killer whales.
Tips
They live in the water, it is a marine mammal, in fact, and it is a cetacean. Therefore, it is familiar to killer whales (its large predators), dolphins, whales, etc.
Whales are viviparous animals. What does this mean? Well, they are animals that when they are born, they do so from their mother’s womb. They have an internal fertilization and it is also in the category of the whales.
A whale is at its moment of sexual maturity when it reaches seven years. When they become pregnant, their gestation lasts practically twelve months and when they have to give birth, despite their large size, they only give birth to one calf. Curious right? But that’s not all, if we investigate a little more about these mammals; we also discover that they can’t get “pregnant” again until some time has passed. And that period of time is nothing more and nothing less than two years.
When the calves of the whales are born, as soon as they are born, they already weigh approximately six thousand or seven thousand kilos. And the length, about eight or nine meters. When they are born, what is most curious is that the young feed on mother’s milk for about nine months and as soon as this time passes, they begin to eat the same as the adults. That is, small fish, crustaceans, etc.
They are very long-lived animals. And when we say this, we refer to the fact that they can live (without problems and with a normal life) more than a hundred years. At least one hundred years and there have even been cases where they reach 120 years without problems.
Unfortunately, we must be much more aware that even in the XXI century we are not, that the whales can be free in the oceans, without so many poachers. Since the great enemy and its great predator, as always, are human beings.
When we can observe a whale in the ocean and we see how they expel water, we must know that they breathe every twenty minutes and just when they expel the water, they breathe. They swim through the sea at a speed of about fifteen and twenty kilometers per hour, but in specific cases (when they feel threatened and must flee), they can accelerate to fifty kilometers per hour.
It is one of the largest animals that rule the animal world right now. It is an enigmatic animal, with a long history and, in fact, it is one of the longest-living animals that inhabit our planet. If we make comparisons, where we know that the dinosaurs (already extinct) and many other species that ended hundreds of thousands of years ago, the whales ended up not becoming extinct and conserving their enormous volume. Despite the fact that in their day they must have been on land because they are mammals and will have lost limbs and therefore, them only live right now in the sea.
