Whale Facts
I'm still adding so please keep coming back to check out some whale facts you never knew before!.............
Whales are split up into two groups called the mysticete whales otherwise known in the more simpler way as baleen whales. Baleen whales don't have teeth, instead they have plated whale bone. Because they dont have teeth they can't eat fish and other types of animals you would expect them to eat. Instead they eat plankton which floats through the water. Baleen whales will swim with their mouth open, so wide that it could fit a small car in it!, and let the sea water pass through the 300 long triangular plates of horney baleen catching the plankton.
EXAMPLE OF BALEEN WHALES:Right whales, gray whales, roquals and blue whales.
The second group of whales are called toothed whales for the obvious reason that they have teeth! Toothed whales eat all different types of fish and sometimes other mammals. The more complicated name for toothed whales is odontocetes
EXAMPLES OF TOOTHED WHALES: Killer whales (orcas), Narwhal whales, pilot whales and the sperm whale.
THE KILLER WHALE
My fave type of whale has to be the killer whale!Although the killer whale is a dolphin and belongs to the delphindae family it is known as a whale because it is so large!
The killer whale can grow up to 28ft in mature femals and 32 ft in mature males. The flippers on both sexes of killer whales are large and oval unlike those of any other toothed whale. Killer whales are known to prey on the Blue whale the largest species on earth!
Its easy to indentify a male orca from a female ocar because the female orca has a curved dorsal fin where as the male orca has straight tall dorsal fin that can grow up as big as 2m tall!
The killer whale can wiegh up to 8200kg and grow up to 9.8m
The killer whale will sometimes jump into land to drive seals and other animals into water so they can have a feast!
Whales live in groups of 2 to 50 and stay together their whole life! The group in which whales stay together are called pods.
Whales and dolphins use echolocation to gather information about their sorroundings They also use echolocation to hunt for their prey.
WHAT IS ECHOLOCATION? Echolocation is when the whale or dolphin send out high frequency clicks that bounce off prey and and other objects and the interpret the returning echoes.
UNUSUAL LOOKING WHALES! Some unusual looking whales are the beluga whale, the Narwhal whale, Sperm whale and the humpback whale.
The beluga whale is also one of my fave whales They are nicknamed the canaries of the sea because they have loud squeeks and chirps.It is also nicknamed the ghost whales of the ice fields because it is so pale white. Beluga whales are often spotted with Narwhal whales. These whales are unusual because they have a large unicorn that grows from the upperjaw. The males carry larger tusks. Some carry two! They use them to stir seabeds where they hunt for fish. I think the sperm whale is also unusual because it has a huge square cut head that looks bigger than the body! When the whale sticks only its head out of the water it is said to look like a sinking ship! Humpback whales are not as unusual as the others but I think the lumpy bumby bits on them make them quite different. The humpback whales is one of the easiest to identify whilst whale watching
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SOON I WILL HAVE ADDED PICS OF THE WHALES I MENTIONED ARE UNUSUAL
HERES A PIC OF A NARWHAL WHALE
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