Whale

LARGEST ANIMAL

Blue Whale compaired with other animals

Whales are very large even the blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth. It is larger than any of the dinosaurs were. it grows to be about 94 feet (29 m) long - the height of a 9-story building. 

They have sleek, streamlined bodies that move easily through the water, suited in marine life.

Their bones are soft and spongy, making them light in weight. you would expect for an animal that big to be very strong. But actually whale not very strong for their size.

Unlike humans the whale can't see straight in front of them and they can't see as well in the air as it can in water.  Whales have greasy tears that protect their eyes when they dive below 500 feet.
Just as humans use their legs,arms and feet whales use their flippers for balance and steering.   Instead of having a tail, a whale has a pair of flukes.  these are horizontal and move up and down as opposed to  fish whose fins move side to side. 

MAMMALS

·         They breathe air through blowhole(s) into lungs (unlike fish who breathe using gills). 

·         Whales have hair (although they have a lot less than land mammals. Newborns have a sparse covering of hair which they lose as adults, because it would cause drag while swimming

• Whales are warm-blooded (they maintain a high body temperature),
• Whales have a four-chambered heart.
• give birth to live young which are nourished with milk from their mothers. Mother whales care for their young for an extended period of time, usually at least a year, feeding them milk and protecting them.

ACTIVITIES

Besides swimming, whale do others activities

·        Breaching: Many whales are very acrobatic, even breaching (jumping) high out of the water and then slapping the water as they come back down. Sometimes they twirl around while breaching. Breaching may be purely for play or may be used to loosen skin parasites or have some social meaning. 

·        Spyhopping: whale pokes its head out of the water and turns around, perhaps to take a look around. 

·        Lobtailing: Some whales stick their tail out of the water into the air, swing it around, and then slap it on the water's surface. It makes a very loud sound. The meaning or purpose of lobtailing is unknown, but may be done as a warning to the rest of the pod of danger. 

·        Logging: Logging is when a whale lies still at the surface of the water, resting, with its tail hanging down.

MIGRATION

Many ceteaceans, especially baleen whales, migrate over very long distances each year. They travel, sometimes in groups (pods), from cold-water feeding grounds to warm-water breeding grounds.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Cetaceans have very strong social ties. The strongest social ties are between mother and calf. A social group of whales is called a pod. Baleen whales travel alone or in small pods. The toothed whales travel in large, sometimes stable pods. The toothed whales frequently hunt their prey in groups, migrate together, and share care of their young. 

TWO TYPES OF WHALE

·        Toothed whales (Odontoceti) - predators that use their peg-like teeth to catch fish, squid, and marine mammals, swallowing them whole. They have one blowhole (nostril) and use echolocation to hunt. There are about 66 species of toothed whales. They are smaller than baleen whales.

·        Baleen whales (Mysticeti) - predators that sieve tiny crustaceans, small fish, and other tiny organisms from the water with baleen. Baleen is a comb-like structure flexible material that hang from the upper jaw that filters the baleen whales' food from the water. Baleen whales are larger than the toothed whales and have 2 blowholes (nostrils). There are 10 species of baleen whales.