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EnchantedLearning.com ALL ABOUT WHALES! |
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| What is a Whale? | Whale Information Sheets | Anatomy and Behavior | Extreme Whales | Whale Myths | Whale Evolution | Whale Classification | Whale Glossary | Whale Activities | Whale Index |
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BLUE WHALE Balaenoptera musculus |
Blue Whale Printout Blue Whale Connect-the-Dots |
Blue whales are the loudest animals on Earth! Their call reaches levels up to 188 decibels. This low-frequency whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles. The blue whale is louder than a jet, which reaches only 140 decibels! Human shouting is 70 decibels; sounds over 120 decibels are painful to human ears.
The blue whale has about 320 pairs of black baleen plates with dark gray bristles in the blue whale's jaws. They are about 39 inches long (1 m), 21 inches wide (53 cm), and weigh 200 pounds (90 kg). The tongue weighs 4 tons (3.8 tonnes).
An average-sized blue whale will eat 2,000-9,000 pounds (900-4100 kg) of plankton each day during the summer feeding season in cold, arctic waters ( about 120 days).
| The Food Chain of a Blue Whale | ||||
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Blue whale |
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Zooplankton |
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Phytoplankton |
SOCIAL GROUPS
Blue whales live individually or in very small pods (groups). They frequently swim in pairs.
DIVING
Blue whales can dive for up to an hour, going to a depth of 350 feet (105 m).
SPOUTING - BREATHING
Blue whales breathe air at the surface of the water through 2 blowholes located near the top of the head. They spout (breathe) about 1-4 times per minute at rest, and 5-12 times per minutes after a deep dive. Their blow is a single stream that rises 40-50 feet (12-15 m) above the surface of the water.
SPEED
Blue whales are very fast swimmers; they normally swim 3-20 mph (4.8-32 kph), but can go up to 24-30 mph (38-48 kph) in bursts when in danger. Feeding speeds are slower, about 1-4 mph (1.6-6.2 kph).
VOCALIZATION
Blue whales emit very loud, highly structured, repetitive low-frequency sounds that can travel for many miles underwater. They are probably the loudest animals alive, louder than a jet engine. These songs may be used for locating large masses of krill (tiny crustaceans that they eat) and for communicating with other blue whales, especially in order to attract and find mates
HABITAT AND RANGE
Blue whales live at the surface of the ocean and are found in all the oceans of the world.
Packs of killer whales (orcas) have been known to attack and kill young blue whales. Man also hunted blue whales until the International Whaling Commission declared them to be a protected species in 1966 because of a huge decrease in their population.
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Kingdom Animalia (animals) Phylum Chordata (vertebrates) Class Mammalia (mammals) Order Cetacea (whales and dolphins) Suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales) Family Balaenopteridae Genus Balaenoptera Species musculus Subspecies B.m. intermedia (from the southern hemisphere), B.m. musculus (from the northern hemisphere in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans), and B.m. brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale; Yochem and Leatherwood 1985). |
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Mystery Whale Connect-the-Dots Connect the dots, then figure out what type of whale you have drawn. |
 Blue Whale Wordsearch Puzzle Find the blue whale words in the wordsearch puzzle, then use the extra letters to find the secret word: "BIGGEST ANIMAL." Or go to the answers. Or go to a pdf of the puzzle and the answers. |
(and other cetaceans) |
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BELUGA WHALE
BLUE WHALE BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN BOWHEAD WHALE GRAY WHALE HUMPBACK WHALE |
KILLER WHALE
MINKE WHALE NARWHAL ORCA RIGHT WHALES SPERM WHALE |
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