Where do whales live?
Blue whales live in all oceans of the world, and prefer the coastal shelf of ocean waters. Blue whales move to different regions of the ocean depending on the season.
Many whales can migrate from northern latitudes to the tropics in winter.
There is evidence that individual blue whales may remain closer to the equator throughout the year.
In practice, tracking the movement of whales is difficult because they live in the open ocean.
How long do they live?
Scientists believe blue whales live for at least 80-90 years, possibly longer.
What do they eat?
Blue whales feed mainly on krill. Whales eat different foods depending on where they live. During the summer months, whales eat about 4 tons of food every day. Blue whales that live in the waters of Baja California and Mexico are known to eat red crabs.
The blue whale is a representative of baleen whales, instead of teeth it has a mustache.
The mustache hangs down from the upper jaw. They are made of keratin, a material similar to nails, and then develop into fine hairs in the mouth next to the tongue. The whale takes a very large amount of water into its mouth and then releases it back. When water is forced out of the mouth, the whalebone plates act like a sieve and retain food.
How do they behave?
The normal travel speed for blue whales is around 22 km / h, but they can reach speeds of up to 30 mph (48 km / h) if they sense danger.
They feed, as a rule, at depths of less than 100 m.
We managed to record flocks of whales, in which there were up to 60, but more often there are single animals or groups of two or three individuals.
Blue whale females give birth to calves in warm waters near the equator during the winter months after returning from feeding from the northern latitudes.
A female blue whale gives birth to one cub every 2-3 years. Twins are rarely born, but such cases do occur. Cubs are 6-7 m long and weigh 3-4 tons at the time of birth.
During feeding, the cub gains 90 kg of its own weight per day. Young whales stop feeding on breast milk after 7 to 8 months, usually after they have reached 16 m in length.
Why and why do whales make sounds?
Whales make short sounds that repeat regularly for up to 30 seconds. They use several different combinations of impulses in a specific sequence that can last for almost an hour and are repeated over many days. The blue whale makes sounds in a low range from 7 Hz to about 200 Hz, but most sounds in the 16 to 28 Hz range. Most of the sounds people cannot hear without special equipment.
We still don't know why they make these sounds, but it has been proven that they can be heard by another whale at a distance of 1126 km. We know that there are different groups of blue whales in different parts of the ocean. Different populations of whales make different sounds.
Enemies of the blue whales
Blue whales, due to their large size, have virtually no natural enemies. The main enemy of blue whales is humans. In the 20th century, this type of whale was almost exterminated.
How many blue whales are in the ocean?
The number of blue whales depends on the size of the population. NOAA estimates that, as of 2003, there were 1,480 whales in the Northeast Pacific (California, Oregon and Washington). In 1994, there were 1,400 blue whales in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
It is believed that there are about 10,000 blue whales throughout the world's oceans.
Whales are the largest (the weight of an adult can exceed 150 tons), the longest (approximately 30-35 meters in length).
A photo of whales cannot leave anyone indifferent.
The blue whale tongue weighs 4 tons. That's about that much. how much the elephant weighs. For example: if people want to climb this language, then at the same time 50 of them will satisfy their desire.
Already in ancient times it was known that these are mammals. They are warm-blooded and breathe air. These heaviest mammals have albeit very tiny, but wool. They feed the cubs with milk. These are facts known to everyone.
Whales can go without sleep for 100 days. They can live without food for 8 months. The most hardy - up to 10 months.
Scientists believe that all cetaceans are apparently secondary water: their ancestors once, about 50 million years ago, emerged from the ocean waters, but in the process of evolution returned to the abyss of the oceans.
Pregnancy in females lasts 11 months. Baby whales are born about 8 meters long and weighing 2-3 tons. The most interesting thing is that the size of the whale egg does not exceed the egg cell of a simple field mouse.
For the first half year of life, the kitten feeds on mother's milk. The cub consumes about 350-390 liters of milk every day. At half a year old, the miracle baby reaches a size of 15 meters and a weight of about 20-25 tons.
The blood of cetaceans absorbs more oxygen than the blood of other mammals.
The oral cavity of cetaceans is not connected to the lungs. They inhale air, rising to the surface of the ocean: their lungs are saturated with oxygen, which subsequently, under water, is saturated with moisture and heats up. The moment the animals emerge, they breathe out and hot air, in contact with cold air, forms a magnificent fountain of condensed steam.
2000 liters of air are inhaled by a whale in 1 second.
It blows out a fountain up to 6 meters high!
The largest whale is blue. For some reason, on several resources on the Internet, I was "lucky" to come across the phrase "blue whale". But this is so, a departure from the topic.
Interestingly, the "blue" females are larger than the males.
The blue whale heart is the largest heart in the world! It is comparable in size to a car, and weighs approximately 600 or 700 kg.
The whale has 8,000 liters of blood, and the vessels in the diameter are approximately the same as the diameter of a bucket for water.
A whale can not breathe for about 2 hours and during this time cover a colossal distance under water!
"Most high-calorie" - 8 million calories per day - that's how much one whale can absorb in one day. And it feeds mainly on krill. A ton of krill a day. Plus everything and everyone who gets into the mouth along with small crustaceans (krill).
Very small, adapted to life in the sea, the eyes are able to withstand high pressure when the animal is immersed to great depths; large fat tears are secreted from the lacrimal ducts, which help to see more clearly in the water and protect the eyes from the effects of salt. Whales have no outer ears; they hear with their lower jaw. From her, the sound goes along a special cavity to the middle and inner ear. Whales constantly listen, because they have no sense of smell and poor vision. Sound gives whales the ability to navigate, communicate with each other and feed, although the exact purpose of the sounds produced by whales has not yet been clarified. Whales suffer greatly from the noise in the world's oceans, which is produced by humans.
Of all mammals, only humans and whales sing songs.
The most talkative and singing whales are white. People affectionately call them "sea canaries" for their wide range of cooing and chirping sounds.
Whale songs are lingering and sonorous. The shortest aria lasts about 6 minutes. However, if no one bothers you to sing, the song of the whale can last for 30-40 minutes. Despite the fact that whales have no vocal cords.
A subspecies called fin whale is quite interesting. These giants live in families of 5-8 individuals, and at the time of migration, fin whales are united in groups of 200-250 individuals. Finwhale is perhaps the fastest of all marine mammals. The speed of his movement at the moment of danger can exceed 45 km / h. Finwhal can dive to a depth of 250 meters and stay there for 15 minutes. And also fin whales can make sounds of such a low frequency that the human ear is simply not able to catch them.
A whale's tail is as individual as a person's - fingerprints. It is impossible to meet two identical tails.
Scars and grooves, cuts, spots of brown algae "paint" uniquely identifying "graffiti" on whale tails.
On this day, back in 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted to completely ban fishing for whales for commercial purposes, which came into force in 1986.
Today, LifeGuide has prepared the most interesting facts about these wonderful marine mammals.
There are many species of cetaceans, but there are 3 main classifications: ancient whales, baleen (or toothless) whales, and toothed whales, which include dolphins.
1. The largest animal in the world is the Blue Whale. Its length can reach up to 33 meters, and its weight exceeds 120 tons.
2. In one second, the whale inhales and exhales about two thousand liters air.
3. In all baleen whales, females are larger than males.
4. The heart of a large Blue whale alone weighs about a ton - it is the largest animal in the world.
5. A whale eats between 150 and 230 kilograms of fish per day.
6. Whales, like humans, feed their young with milk from their mammary glands, hence the name - mammals.
7. A baby whale gains about 100 kg every day, drinking about 380 l milk per day.
8. Outwardly, whales and dolphins resemble large fish, but they breathe not with gills, but with lungs.
9. Cetaceans can stay in water for up to 40 minutes, and sperm whales - up to 1.5 hours.
10. During exhalation, in large whales the air is pushed out with such force that the loud sound of the fountain will be heard even at a great distance in calm calm weather.
11. Cetaceans have almost no sense of smell. The sense of touch, in contrast to the sense of smell, is very well developed. However, the most important way whales transmit information is through hearing. Especially keen hearing in toothed whales.
12. The whales are singing. Yes, the sounds through which they communicate are reminiscent of human singing in their melodiousness. The shortest "aria" lasts 6 minutes, the longest - about 30 minutes.
13. Researchers suspect that dolphins may also use their "vocal skills" not only for echolocation, but also to stun or paralyze prey while hunting.
14. Sperm whales are considered to be quite dangerous whales. When wounded, they are capable of sinking an entire whaling ship.
15. The teeth of sperm whales, most often, are located only on the lower jaw. Female sperm whales always have fewer teeth than males.
16. Sperm whales grow all their lives, usually males are almost twice as large as females.
17. 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. 
18. In terms of body-to-brain size, dolphins have a much larger brain than chimpanzees. The brain of an adult representative weighs about 1 kg 700 g, while in humans it weighs 1 kg 200 g. In addition, the dolphin has twice as many convolutions. This explains everything J.
19. According to the latest scientific data, dolphins have a huge vocabulary - up to 14,000 sounds of various signals, as well as self-awareness and empathy to help people.
20. Dolphins distinguish each other by the "names" that they have at birth. Experiments have shown that the same dolphin responded to the recorded sound signaling the name.
21. Whales and dolphins are able to play with each other.
22. Dolphins do not usually live alone. They have a complex social structure and a wide range of emotions, including a sense of humor.
23. Sharks, no matter how predatory they are, try to avoid dolphin society.
24. The only known albino humpback whale on the planet has been sighted near Australia.
25. Dolphins with simple communication and games help children with cerebral palsy and autism to heal. Dolphins are well aware of the state of autism patients, and they manage to reach out to their minds. This method of treatment is called dolphin therapy.
26. Dolphins sometimes have mass suicides. This is due to the fact that dolphins feel the earth's magnetic field well, and sometimes their "sensor" fails and they get lost from their route and are thrown ashore.
27. There are fighting dolphins. They are used for military purposes and are trained to detect underwater mines, rescue sailors after the destruction of their ship, and even, according to unconfirmed reports, destroy submarines using the "kamikaze" method.
28. Scientists studying dolphins have noticed a fascinating fact: male dolphins give their potential partners gifts in the form of "bouquets" of algae.
29. And finally, the main enemy of cetaceans is man!
Whales are amazing creatures, huge, really huge, but at the same time completely harmless. At least blue whales. The true scale of these giants is very difficult to imagine even from photographs - until you see them live, you will hardly be able to feel the greatness of these creatures. The seasonal migration of whales is an amazing sight that attracts many tourists to some countries of Oceania.
- Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived on Earth. The body length of an adult whale of this species can reach 33 meters, and its weight can exceed 150 tons.
- Whales evolved from terrestrial artiodactyl mammals, and this evolutionary leap took place about 54 million years ago. Their huge bodies still have wool, they are warm-blooded and feed their offspring with milk.
- Whales are able to swim even in very cold water thanks to the thick layer of fat under their skins.
- During sleep, whales must periodically rise to the surface and inhale air, so at a certain point in time only half of their brains are sleeping.
- In the past, people believed that the Earth rests on the backs of 3 large and 30 small whales.
- The blue whale tongue weighs 4 tons. It is so large that it can accommodate up to 50 people if desired.
- Whales can stay awake for 100 days and do not eat for up to 10 months.
- Newborn whales weigh several tons and have a body length of about 8 meters. They drink 350-390 liters of mother's milk every day. The weight of half-year-old whales reaches 25 tons.
- Whale blood is more oxygenated than any other mammal. In a second, whales breathe in 2000 liters of air, and they do this not with their mouths, but with a blower located in the back of their heads (see).
- During exhalation, bowhead whales release a fountain up to 6 meters high.
- The diameter of the whale vessels is comparable to the diameter of the buckets. Huge hearts pump 8,000 liters of blood through them.
- Whales are able to hold their breath for several hours.
- The heart of a blue whale is the largest in the world, weighing about a ton. It is much larger than the heart of an elephant, the largest land creature (see).
- Whales can absorb up to 8 million calories per day.
- Whales have no ears; they hear with the help of the lower jaw.
- Whales have poor eyesight, sense of smell and taste are completely absent.
- At great depths, fatty tears flow from the eyes of whales, protecting the eyes from salt and allowing them to see better.
- Whales and humans are the only mammals to sing songs. White whales make the most melodic sounds.
- The whales do not have vocal cords, but this does not prevent them from performing their songs for 30-40 minutes.
- Whale tails are as unique as human fingerprints - no two are alike in nature.
- Fin whales emit sounds of such a low frequency that they are inaccessible to human hearing.
- Whales are capable of diving to a depth of 3.5 kilometers. During a dive, the work of their internal organs slows down, for example, the heart only makes 10 beats per minute.
- Whales don't drink sea water - they extract moisture from their food.
- Male whales have the largest sexual organ among all animals - its length reaches 3 meters and a diameter of 30 centimeters. At the same time, a whale's egg cell is comparable in size to a mouse's egg cell.
- In the past, narwhal whales were on the verge of extinction due to the increased interest of people in their horns - in particular, scammers convinced their victims that these were unicorn horns.
- Some whale species have a lifespan of over 100 years.
- Sperm whales are capable of making the deepest dives of all marine mammals - in search of food, they descend to a depth of 2 kilometers (see.
Whales are the largest animals on our planet. The largest representative of cetaceans is the blue whale, its body length can reach 33 meters, and its weight is 120 tons. Outwardly, whales are very similar to fish, but they are not fish, but mammals that live in the water. It is believed that the ancestors of whales were terrestrial animals from the artiodactyl order, which switched to an aquatic lifestyle about 50 million years ago.
Since whales are mammals, they are characterized by the main features of all animals - they are warm-blooded, that is, they have a constant body temperature, breathe atmospheric air with the help of their lungs and feed their young with milk.
Whales have smooth, hairless skin. This body surface provides whales with better glide in water. Whales have a thick layer of fat under their skin that prevents whales from freezing in cold water. The head of the whales is large - in the blue whale, its length reaches almost a third of the entire length of the body. The eyes are very small, there are no auricles, but whales are not deaf - behind their eyes they have small auditory holes leading to the eardrum. Acute hearing is important for whales, as it allows them to navigate well in the water.
Whales belong to the order cetaceans. In this order, three suborders are distinguished - toothed whales, baleen whales and ancient whales (ancient whales are completely extinct).
Spreading
Whales live in all oceans and some seas. Some whales prefer the cold waters of the polar seas (bowhead whales), others are more thermophilic, and there are some that can live in both cold and warm waters (sperm whales and killer whales).
Nutrition
Whales have different feeding methods and depend on which suborder the whale belongs to - toothed or toothed.
Toothed whales have sharp teeth that allow them to successfully hunt large squid and large fish. The killer whale can hunt not only fish, but also seals, birds and other marine life.
Baleen whales have no teeth, but there are special whiskers located on the upper jaw. Through these special plates, whales filter water and extract plankton from it - small crustaceans, which are the main source of food for baleen whales. Some baleen whales feed on small schooling fish, filtering it out of the water, like plankton.
Lifestyle
A female whale usually gives birth to one calf every two years. He is well developed and can swim straight away. For the first few months, the kitten feeds on mother's milk and grows very quickly. A female whale's milk is thick and nutritious, its fat content reaches 54%.
An adult whale is considered to be about three years old, but its body can grow in size up to about 12 years old.
Brief information about whales.
