The big blue whale is the giant of the planet Earth. Description and photo of the blue whale

Different representatives of the order of cetaceans have their own preferences and specializations in the diet. According to the types of main food, whales are divided into four groups:

1. planktophages - animals mainly feeding on plankton (small crustaceans);
2. teutophages - individuals of cetaceans whose diet is based on cephalopods of various sizes;
3. ichthyophages are whales that feed mainly on fish of various species;
4. sacrophages are representatives of the order of cetaceans, which are a kind of vegetarians, the basis of their diet is algae.

Individuals of the order of cetaceans consume food whole, without chewing, its daily requirement can reach a ton or more.

For different whales, the prey used for food can be both piece and mass. The pharynx of baleen whales is rather narrow, only plankton or small fish can pass through it, so these animals, the so-called "filterers", get food at the same time in significant quantities. To do this, a huge mammal wedges itself into a plankton colony - krill - and, opening its gigantic mouth, sucks in water along with crustaceans (plankton). With its very large tongue, having previously closed its mouth, the whale squeezes water through the whalebone. The water leaves, but the food remains. Such an operation, during the day, animals carry out repeatedly.

Toothed whales, the so-called "grabbers", get food by grabbing prey one by one, and hold it with their teeth or suck it in using their tongue. The basis of the diet of toothed whales is cephalopods and different types fish. The sperm whale belonging to this group of whales has a pharynx of considerable size and could even swallow a person. This mammal, as a rule, obtains food at a considerable depth - more than one and a half kilometers - and squids form the basis of its diet. The only representatives of the order of cetaceans that constantly feed not only on cold-blooded, but also on warm-blooded animals, such as seals, birds and whales, are killer whales.

By the way, do you know

Cetaceans are the largest animals among all living on our planet: for example, adult blue whales have a body length of over twenty meters. The record holder among blue whales had this figure equal to thirty-three meters. The weight of an adult blue whale varies from ninety to one hundred and twenty tons.

In the waters of the icy Arctic seas, real sea unicorns are found - narwhals. However, the “horn” of the narwhal is not a horn at all, but the front left tooth, which in the process of evolution turned into a finely twisted tusk. Only male narwhals have such a “horn”.

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Little children love to find out who is the biggest and who is the strongest in the world. Having learned about the animals themselves - elephants and whales - they often ask the question: "And if a whale and an elephant fight, then who will win whom?"
Of course, the elephant does not have to fight the whale. Firstly, both of them are distinguished by a fairly peaceful disposition, if they are angry. Secondly, whales do not come out onto land, and elephants do not swim in the sea, at least not far enough and long enough to meet whales. And thirdly, the size of an elephant is surprising only on land. At sea, it will not seem too big to anyone: its weight is only 4 tons!
Blue whale reaches enormous sizes. There are no larger animals on Earth, even the extinct dinosaurs were smaller - both in height and in weight. Adults are about 20 m long, but there are also real giants: 33 m is a record among vertebrates! Such a hulk weighs up to 160 tons, count how many elephants you need to collect in order to “drag” the blue whale? 40 elephants! And there are much more people: 2,300 people of average height and weight. The whale's tongue alone weighs as much as an adult elephant. So, if the sea and land giants had met, the whale would hardly have paid attention to the “baby” with a trunk. After all, even a newborn blue whale weighs about 2 tons with a height of 7 m!
What does such a huge animal eat? After all, only to move (and not so slowly - up to 30 km / h.!), This giant has to expend a lot of effort. And to maintain the life of the entire huge organism, too. And in sea water you need to constantly warm up, because the whale is not a fish, it has about the same body temperature as ours. Even in the tropics, the ocean is rarely warmer than 25°C, and colder water constantly "sucks" the heat out of any animal. Whales, on the other hand, do not want to “warm up” in warm waters, they are often found in cold seas, they swim at the very edge of the ice. This means that they need to eat even more, and this food should be satisfying. There are not so many algae in the ocean, and it is more convenient to “graze” near the bottom for those animals that are smaller. Who are these giants hunting?
Their prey is so small that the details of its structure cannot be seen without a strong magnifying glass. The largest victims are little more than a cockroach, and the smallest are the size of a mosquito. These are small crustaceans that swim near the surface of the ocean, they are called by the Norwegian word "krill". Krill are one of the most important parts of the animal community that swim at the behest of ocean currents. This whole community is called plankton, many of its representatives can only be seen under a microscope. However, it is this floating trifle that serves as food for almost all the inhabitants of the seas: either they eat it, or those who feed on this plankton, and then someone will eat the “hunter”, and so on, until the predators are so large and strong that with no one can handle them.
The blue whale is not a predator, it does not catch up with anyone and does not bite, it does not even have teeth. Instead, meter-long plates hang from the upper jaw, similar to bone combs, but their “teeth” are small, they split into several hairs, so that all together they turn into a really thick brush. Like a mustache. Such a plate is called a “whalebone”, only it grows not outside, but inside, and the whale has several hundred of these whiskers - on both sides of the mouth. It turns out a thick, rather fine mesh, such as a sieve.
All whales communicate with each other using various sounds. The larger the whale, the louder and lower, "bass", his voice. At the same time, as scientists have found out, large whales are able to send signals to relatives located tens and even hundreds of kilometers away from them. Are the voices of sea giants so loud? It turns out not. It's all about the properties of sea water. At a certain depth there are layers of water with different densities, through which sound travels much further, and they are used by cetaceans as a kind of underwater telephone. In a herd of whales, someone is constantly “on duty by the phone”: it dives to the desired depth and listens for messages from neighbors. With the help of such communication, for example, the news about the abundance of food in any place is quickly transmitted, and whales begin to gather in such an area from a rather large area of ​​the ocean. It is suggested that the “next one” transmits the message further, repeats it, as a result, the signal reaches very distant herds.
Whales with a "sieve" in their mouths are called baleen whales, as opposed to those with real teeth - toothed whales. All baleen whales have adapted to sifting the ocean in search of edible little things. It is enough for such a barbel to take water into his mouth, close his jaws and with his tongue, like a piston of a pump, squeeze the water through the mesh donated by nature. In this case, the crustaceans settle on the mustache, it remains only to swallow!
There is a lot of water in the whale's mouth, hundreds of liters, and even more food in the stomach. It takes about 1 ton of krill for a big blue whale to eat its fill! And crustaceans, as we remember, are tiny ... One circumstance saves whales: krill in the ocean are kept in huge clusters. For hundreds of meters, pinkish stripes sometimes stretch downstream - these are the bodies of many crustaceans that shine through the water. In other places, these clusters are not so clearly visible, not so dense, but they occupy vast spaces - tens of kilometers across! Such a living spot can feed not one whale, but a whole herd for several days. Having found accumulations of plankton, whales with open mouths swim 1 - 2 km. At the same time, the tongue directs the flow of water to the whiskers, and so many crustaceans can linger on the plates that the whale's mouth closes with difficulty. A few powerful sips - and the giant is full!
However, some baleen whales prefer larger prey, such as small fish. A relative of the blue whale (in some ways inferior to it in size - up to 27 m long), the fin whale was nicknamed the herring whale for hunting shoals of this fish. However, a few, and mackerel, are suitable for him, so that they swim in the ocean in dense herds and be not too large: the throat of a fin whale, like that of all baleen whales, is narrow. Another condition, without which the herring whale will not hunt: the school must stay near the surface of the sea, if it is deep, the hunt will not work, and you can not start.
Frightened fish swim quite quickly, whales will have to spend more energy chasing than will be added from such a quick breakfast. However, the prey is too attractive: in a large school you can even fill the belly of a whale with herring to the limit, so the fin whale had to learn how to drive the fish into a trap. Scientists even managed to film this strange method of fishing from a helicopter and, by the way, confirm the stories of former whalers, which the “land” inhabitants often do not believe.

Whales have no hands, building a trap from something in the middle of the ocean is a very difficult task, because the fin whale manages with what it has. By air. The fact is that the fish are very wary of any unusual noise, and they run in a panic from a continuous curtain of air bubbles. It is believed that the bubbling bubbles remind them of foam from the surf on the rocks, and the fish try to get away from the dangerous interference until they are thrown ashore or smashed against the rocks by a wave. Be that as it may, such a habit is only good for herring whales.
Having found a school, the fin whale dives under it, shallowly, by 20 - 30 meters. Then it starts to swim in a circle, gradually exhaling air. The circle narrows, forming a spiral wall of bubbles. Part of the jamb that has fallen inside this wall is thrown into the center of the spiral, and at that moment a huge mouth appears there. Having surfaced, the fin whale turns over on its side or on its back - it has caught too many fish, the mouth does not close in any way! We have to “help”: the jaw is heavy, and under its weight the fish is tightly “packed”.

The largest of the mammals - cetaceans - spend their entire lives in the water. However, their ancestors lived on land, so whales are usually called "secondary" animals, in contrast to fish and amphibians, which are "primary aquatic". This explains the fact that whales cannot be under water for a long time, because they breathe air.

The diet of these animals is quite diverse and depends on the habitat of the whale, its size and type. Thus, cetaceans can feed on both microorganisms and large mammals. Let's take a closer look at what whales eat.

whale food

So, all whales are divided into two types: baleen whales and toothed ones. The diet of one type of whale differs significantly from that of another.

First of all, it should be said that toothed whales are predators: they have teeth with which they are able to “grind” flesh. Toothed whales include, for example, sperm whales, dolphins, beaked whales, porpoises. They eat mainly cephalopods (squid, octopus), as well as shrimp, crabs, fish (even other whales and sharks), seals, walruses, sea lions. When there is not enough food, algae can absorb. They use echolocation when hunting.

Baleen whales (gray whale, blue whale, minke whale, pygmy, etc.) pass food through the "whalebone" - horny comb-like plates on the upper jaw. Their diet is plankton (small crustacean organisms that form clusters - krill), which they filter from the water or the bottom with a mustache. Sometimes they can eat small fish or crustaceans.

Interestingly, in winter, whales practically do not eat, so in summer they constantly consume food in order to accumulate a layer of fat (not only as a reserve of nutrients, but also to protect against low water temperatures). A whale eats up to three tons of food per day.

The blue whale or blue whale is a marine animal that is a representative of the order of cetaceans. The blue whale belongs to the baleen whales of the minke whale genus. The blue whale is the largest whale on the planet. In this article you will find a description and photo of the blue whale, learn a lot of new and interesting things about the life of this huge and amazing animal.

The blue whale looks very huge, but it has an elongated and slender body. The large head of this whale is equipped with small eyes and a sharp snout with a wide lower jaw. The blue whale has a blowhole, when exhaling from which it releases a vertical fountain of water up to 10 meters high. On the head in front of the blowhole, the blue whale has a noticeable longitudinal ridge, which is called the "breakwater".

The blue whale has a dorsal fin that is strongly shifted back. This fin is very small and shaped like a pointed triangle. The rear edge of the whale's fin is covered with scratches, which form an individual pattern for each whale. By such drawings, researchers can distinguish each individual. The length of this fin is only 35 cm.

The blue whale has narrow, elongated pectoral fins that reach up to 4 meters in length. The caudal fin of a blue whale reaches up to 8 meters wide, it has a thick caudal stalk and a small notch. All these elements help the blue whale to easily control its large body in the water.

The blue whale looks very unusual, thanks to its longitudinal stripes. Like all minke whales, the blue whale has many longitudinal stripes on the underside of its head that continue down its throat and belly. These stripes are formed by the folds of the skin and help the blue whale's throat stretch when it swallows a large volume of water with food. There are usually about 60-70 such stripes in a blue whale, but sometimes more.

The blue whale is the largest whale of all cetaceans at present. Also, the blue whale is the largest animal on Earth. The size of the blue whale is huge and makes a strong impression. Giants 30 meters long and weighing more than 150 tons are amazing. In blue whales, females are slightly larger than males.

The largest blue whale is known - this is a female, which had a length of 33 meters, with a body weight of 190 tons. Among males, the largest blue whale weighed 180 tons, with a body length of 31 meters. Huge blue whales over 30 meters long are extremely rare today. Therefore, in our time, the length of the blue whale has somewhat decreased. At the same time, the mass of the blue whale also became slightly smaller.

The length of the blue whale in males varies from 23 to 25 meters. The length of the blue whale in females ranges from 24 to 27 meters. The weight of the blue whale is as striking as its length. The weight of the blue whale ranges from 115 to 150 tons. Individuals that live in the Northern Hemisphere are a couple of meters smaller in size than those that live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Vision and sense of smell in a large blue whale are poorly developed. But his hearing and touch are well developed. The big blue whale has a huge lung capacity. The amount of blood in a large blue whale is over 8 thousand liters. The tongue of the blue whale weighs up to 4 tons. Despite such impressive numbers, the blue whale has a narrow throat, its diameter is only 10 cm. The heart of the blue whale weighs a whole ton and is the largest heart in the entire animal world. At the same time, his pulse is usually 5-10 beats per minute and rarely exceeds 20 beats.

The skin of the blue whale looks smooth and even, except for the presence of stripes on the throat and belly. Blue whales almost do not overgrow with various crustaceans, which often settle on other whales in large numbers. The blue whale looks pretty monotonous. It has a predominantly gray skin color, with a blue tint. Sometimes the blue whale looks more grey, and it happens that its color has more blue tones. In a blue whale, the lower jaw and head are the darkest in color, the back is lighter, the sides and belly are the lightest on the whole body.

There are gray spots on the body of the blue whale, they have a different shape and size. By these spots, one or another whale can be distinguished. Thanks to this coloring, the blue whale looks like it is made of marble. In the tail part, the number of spots increases. The pectoral fins of the blue whale on the inside are much lighter in color than the rest of the body. However, the underside of the tail is much darker than the rest of the body. Through the water column, this whale looks completely blue, in connection with which the blue whale is called blue.

In cold waters, the color of the blue whale takes on a greenish tint, as the skin of this mammal is overgrown with microscopic algae, which form a film on its skin. The acquisition of this shade is characteristic of all baleen whales. As the whales return to warmer waters, this coating disappears.

Inside the mouth of this giant there are whalebone plates, about a meter long, which are composed of keratin. The longest whalebone plates are in the back rows, and in the front part their length decreases to 50 cm. These plates reach a width of about half a meter. One plate of whalebone can weigh up to 90 kg. In total, the blue whale has 800 plates on the upper jaw, 400 on each side. The blue whale's whisker has a deep black color. The plates of the whalebone are in the form of an inverted triangle, the top of which is crushed into a hair-like fringe, which is rather rough and hard.

There are three subspecies of the blue whale - northern, southern and pygmy, which are slightly different from each other. Sometimes another subspecies stands out - the Indian blue whale. The first two subspecies prefer cold circumpolar waters, while the rest inhabit mainly tropical seas. All subspecies have almost the same lifestyle. The life expectancy of a blue whale is quite large and can be 90 years old, the oldest of the whales was 110 years old. The average life span of blue whales is 40 years.

Previously, the blue whale's habitat was the entire world's oceans. At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of huge blue whales began to decline rapidly due to active fishing. The gigantic size of the carcass of the animal attracted whalers. Indeed, from one large blue whale one could get a lot of fat and meat. So by 1960, the blue whale was almost destroyed and was on the verge of complete extinction, there were no more than 5 thousand individuals left.

Now the big blue whale is still very rare - the total number of these animals is about 10 thousand individuals. The main threat to blue whales is the pollution of the seas and the disruption of their usual way of life. Also, the growth in the number of blue whales is affected by their slow natural reproduction.

The blue whale lives in the waters of many states and territories throughout our planet. Previously, the habitat of the blue whale occupied the entire oceans. Now the blue whale lives in different waters, depending on the subspecies. The northern and southern subspecies of blue whales live in cold waters. The southern subspecies is mainly found in cold subantarctic waters. Life in warmer waters is preferred by pygmy whales.

The animal blue whale rises very far to the north - southern blue whales have been seen off the coast of Chile, South Africa and Namibia. In the Indian Ocean, the blue whale lives in equatorial waters all year round. They are especially often seen near Ceylon and the Maldives, as well as in the Gulf of Aden and the Seychelles. These are the best places on the planet for those who want to see whales.

In the Pacific, blue whales are found off the coast of Chile. But off the coast from Costa Rica to California, they are absent. At the same time, blue whales are becoming numerous in the waters of California. The blue whale lives from the coast of Oregon to the Kuril Islands and to the Aleutian Ridge, but does not go far into the Bering Sea.

In the waters around Japan and Korea, great blue whales are now absent, but have been seen before. Blue whales are extremely rare in Russian waters. Small groups and solitary animals were seen near Cape Lopatka (the southernmost point of the Kamchatka Peninsula).

In the North Atlantic, blue whales are few in number compared to those in the Southern Hemisphere. In the North Atlantic, the blue whale lives off the coast of Canada, in areas between Nova Scotia and the Davis Strait.

Blue whales are found off Iceland and in the Danish Strait. Previously, the blue whale lived off the northwest coast of the British Isles, the Faroe Islands and off the coast of Norway. Occasionally, blue whales can be found off the coast of Spain and Gibraltar.

Blue whales are known to migrate. Whales spend their summers in the high latitudes of both hemispheres, but with the onset of winter, they migrate to warmer areas of low latitudes. The winter migrations of the blue whale in the North Atlantic are poorly understood. It is still unclear why blue whales always leave Antarctica by winter and move north to warmer waters. Despite the fact that the former place still has enough food.

This probably happens because females, at the birth of their cubs, tend to take them away from cold areas. Since the blue whale cubs have a poorly developed fat layer and therefore are not sufficiently protected from the cold. After all, a developed fat layer helps to maintain the body temperature of blue whales even in the coldest waters.

Blue whales live alone, sometimes in small groups. But even in groups they swim separately. Mammal blue whale is diurnal. The blue whale lives by using vocal signals to communicate with relatives. The sounds that the blue whale makes are infrasounds. They are very intense. Blue whales use infrasonic signals to communicate over long distances during migrations.

Blue whales are able to communicate using signals at a distance of up to 33 km. The voice of the blue whale is extremely loud. There are known cases of registration of a very intense voice of a blue whale at a distance of 200, 400 and even 1600 km. Also, the blue whale uses its signals to find a partner to create a family.

In general, the blue whale lives, showing the greatest tendency to loneliness than all other cetaceans. But sometimes blue whales live in small groups. In places where food is abundant, they can form conspicuous aggregations that divide into small groups. In these groups, blue whales are kept separately. But the total number of such concentrations of blue whales can reach 50-60 individuals.

The blue whale can dive quite deep. The blue whale is able to dive to a depth of 500 meters for up to 50 minutes. The usual dives of a blue whale that feeds are within 100-200 meters of depth. Such dives last from 5 to 20 minutes.

A feeding whale dives rather slowly. After surfacing, the whale's breathing accelerates, while it emits a fountain. When breathing is restored, the whale dives again. The blue whale in a calm state breathes up to 4 times per minute. Young whales breathe more often than adults. After a long deep dive, the blue whale makes a series of short dives and shallow dives. During this time, the whale swims 40-50 meters.

The blue whale looks quite imposing and impressive when it jumps out of the water. The most spectacular dives are the first after rising from the depths and the last before diving. The whale emerges, showing the very top of the head, then the back, dorsal fin and caudal peduncle.

When a blue whale dives to a depth, it strongly tilts its head down. When the head is already deep under water, a part of its back with a fin is shown on the surface, which always goes under the water last. The whale descends lower and lower until it hides under water without showing its tail. The blue whale lives by spending 94% of its time underwater.

On short distances, the blue whale can reach speeds of up to 37 km/h, and in some cases up to 48 km/h. But the whale cannot maintain such a speed for a long time, because this is too much load on the body. The whale produces up to 500 horsepower at this speed. A feeding blue whale moves slowly, within 2-6 km/h. But during migrations, its speed increases to 33 km/h.

Because the whale is so massive, adult blue whales have no natural predators. But juvenile blue whales can become victims of killer whale attacks. These predators in a flock drive the whale to a depth where it weakens from a lack of oxygen. Killer whales will be able to tear and eat a weakened animal.

There are currently no direct threats to the blue whale population. But there is a danger posed to them by long nets of 5 km. In such networks, a huge number of marine life die, although only one case of the death of blue whales in them is known. In other cases, according to fishermen, large blue whales easily overcame such nets. Off the coast of Western Canada, blue whales have many markings on their skin from various fishing gear.

Also, blue whales die in the Pacific Ocean from collisions with ships, the average is 1-2 cases per year. Some animals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have scars from ship collisions. This is due to the high concentration of blue whales combined with heavy shipping in these waters. Today, despite the protection of blue whales, there are still no restrictions on navigation even in the places of their greatest abundance. There are only recommendations to slow down in these waters, which are not carried out by captains.

Now, however, the greatest threat to blue whales is posed by pollution of the seas, including oil products. Toxic chemicals that enter the sea accumulate in the fatty tissue of blue whales. It is especially dangerous when these substances accumulate in the body of females who are expecting the appearance of cubs.

Also, human impact affects the number of blue whales by disrupting their communications. Noise background of the sea recent times has increased too much and the voice signals of large baleen whales are often muffled. After all, the noises that ships make have the same frequency as the voices of whales.

In this connection, it becomes more difficult for whales to navigate and search for relatives, which also makes it difficult to find a partner during the mating season. The greatest damage in this case is caused by the hydroacoustic systems of warships that operate in active mode.

The blue whale feeds on plankton, which is typical of baleen whales. The mammalian blue whale has an excellent filtering apparatus, which is formed by baleen plates.

The blue whale feeds on krill - this is the main food in its diet. Sometimes the blue whale feeds on larger crustaceans and small fish. But still, small crustaceans predominate in the composition of the blue whale's food. Mass accumulations of such crustaceans are called krill. Below in the photo you can see the accumulation of krill in the ocean.

Fish play a minor role in the diet of the blue whale. When ingesting masses of krill, the great blue whale may inadvertently ingest small fish, small squid and other marine animals. Sometimes the blue whale feeds on small crustaceans that are not krill.

The blue whale feeds in the same way as the rest of the minke whales. The whale slowly swims with its mouth open and draws water into it with a mass of small crustaceans. The whale's mouth is very stretched due to the stripes on the throat and the movable bones of the lower jaw. Having scooped up water with crustaceans, the whale closes its mouth. At the same time, the blue whale's tongue pushes water back through the whalebone. And the plankton that settled on the fringe of the mustache is swallowed.

The huge lower jaw, which is filled with water with food, becomes very heavy. Sometimes the weight is so heavy that it is difficult for the blue whale to move its jaw to close its mouth.

Therefore, the blue whale, picking up food in its mouth, to facilitate its closing, turns over on its side or back. In this position, the mouth closes itself under the influence of gravity.

Due to their size, the blue whale is forced to consume a lot of food - a blue whale can eat from 3 to 8 tons of krill per day. A blue whale needs about 1.5 tons of food per day.

The natural growth of the blue whale is very slow. The blue whale is the animal in which this process is the slowest among all baleen whales. Female blue whales produce offspring once every two years. This period may increase or decrease, it depends on the density of the population of blue whales. Unfortunately, it has declined in recent decades. The blue whale is a monogamous animal. Blue whales form long-lasting pairs. The male always keeps close to the female, both during pregnancy and after the appearance of the baby.

The duration of pregnancy in a female blue whale lasts about 11 months. Most often, one blue whale calf is born. A small giant is born 6-8 meters long and weighing 2-3 tons. Immediately after birth, a blue whale calf can move independently. The baby is born tail first. Females have a very developed maternal instinct, they are deeply attached to their cubs.

Blue whale calves accompanied by females begin to meet from December to March. Milk feeding in blue whale calves lasts about 7 months. During this time, the baby blue whale reaches up to 16 meters in length and weighs 23 tons.

A blue whale calf consumes up to 90 liters of milk per day. Reaching the age of 1.5 years, the baby blue whale grows up to 20 meters in length and 45-50 tons of weight. The milk of the female blue whale is very fatty and rich in protein. The fat content in it is from 37 to 50%.

Blue whales become capable of breeding offspring at the age of 8-10 years. Females by this age reach 23 meters and weigh about 90 tons. The blue whale reaches its full length and bodily maturity by the age of 15.

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The huge feeds on the smallest - so you can say about whales. Because whales eat plankton - a kind of living suspension of tiny organisms floating in the water column. But this is true only in relation to toothless, or baleen, whales. Toothed whales have completely different gastronomic preferences. The notorious killer whales have gained fame as ruthless killers, and the sperm whale is able to grapple with the inhabitant of the depths - a giant squid, defeat it and eat it.

Nursing the cubs

Whales are mammals. Females feed their cubs with thick and high-calorie milk, half consisting of fat and protein. The milk of cetaceans is cream-colored, similar in consistency to a paste, and does not spread in water.

The feeding process takes place under water. A newborn kitten must have time to eat and breathe at the same time. He captures the nipple for about 5-6 seconds, the female, by contraction of the muscles, sends a stream of milk into the mouth of the offspring, he takes a sip and immediately floats up to inhale the air. "Gymnastics" continues throughout the entire period of milk feeding - this is how a small whale trains the skill of holding its breath. A baby blue whale drinks up to 200 liters of milk per day. Whales begin to feed on their own quite late - for example, the sperm whale remains a "baby" for 13 months.

Two types of food

All whales descended from a common ancestor - mesonychia. 50 million years ago, this strange creature, similar to a hoofed wolf, lived along the sea coasts, preying on fish and small amphibians. In search of food, the mesonychia swam further and further, and less and less often went ashore, from where they were driven away by land predators.

Evolution imperceptibly did its job - unnecessary hind limbs disappeared, cartilaginous blades grew on the tail, and the front paws turned into flippers. At some point, whales split into two branches - baleen (Mysticeti) and toothed (Odontoceti). Some began to graze peacefully in the ocean, filtering out plankton, while others turned into fearless and swift hunters.

baleen whales

Baleen whales are called "filterers" for a specific way of feeding that is not found in other warm-blooded whales. Instead of teeth, they have whalebone plates descending from the upper jaw and collected in a kind of "blinds" on the sides of the mouth. The edge of the plates, facing inward, is provided with a thick fringe. The tongue of baleen whales is well developed, mobile and adapted to pulling a mass of small prey into the throat. The head of the filter whale takes up to a third of the total length of its body, and the lower jaw is shaped like a bucket.

The feeding process is as follows: the whale is gaining a full mouth of water, along with the plankton in it. Having closed its jaws, the animal with its tongue, like a piston, squeezes the water out - through the frequent plates of the whalebone. The lips of the whale at this moment are not very tightly closed, and the water, cleared of plankton, goes back into the ocean. All solid inclusions settle on the fringe. The tongue makes a reverse movement and removes from the "filter" everything that has settled on it.

Baleen whale head in cross section

Although a certain amount of small fish, mollusks, jellyfish, algae and other marine life enters the whale's stomach along with plankton, their percentage is negligible compared to the mass of the main prey. That is, baleen whales are planktophages.

What does plankton look like?

Plankton (translated from Greek - “wandering”) is the collective name for all living things that soar between the water surface and the bottom. This is a community of small living creatures, ranging from diatoms to fairly large, up to 6 cm long, crustaceans. Plankton in the bulk is not capable of active movement and is carried by ocean currents.

The species composition of plankton is heterogeneous - it depends on the season, latitude, water temperature and other factors. Phytoplankton, that is, the simplest algae, keeps in the uppermost layers of the water, closer to sunlight. However, whales are not attracted to algae, they are interested in more high-calorie food, namely zooplankton.

"Pastures" of whales

Zooplankton consists mainly of small crustaceans. Forms huge accumulations in the oceans. Whales are looking for them. And when they find it, they slowly move in the mass of plankton, regularly opening and closing their mouths, like a harvester during harvest.

Whales are herd animals. Having found a feeding place, the whale calls its relatives. His voice sounds with the power of an aircraft turbine and is heard for many hundreds of kilometers. But these cries of concern do not cause people, because sea giants communicate in the infrasonic range (below 50 Hz).

Baleen whales have a number of adaptations that allow them to capture as much food as possible. Minke whales (blue whale, fin whale, etc.) were especially successful in this. Under the lower jaw they have a leathery bag, usually assembled into long longitudinal folds. The volume of this bag can increase several times.

Each species of whale has a filtering apparatus "tuned" to a catch of a certain size. Right whales (bowhead, southern, Japanese) feed on tiny, no more than 0.5 cm, crustaceans of the genus Calanus, so their filter is equipped with a thin and frequent fringe, intertwined in a dense network. Krill, the favorite food of minke whales, are crustaceans of the euphausian order, about the size of a finger. Accordingly, the fringe of minke whales is coarser and sparse.

The largest creature on the planet, the blue, or blue whale, feeds fat on krill. The length of this giant can reach more than 30 meters, and the weight can exceed 150 tons. The blue whale catches and sends about 50 kg of krill to its stomach in one go, and its daily ration is 6-8 tons.

Not a krill alone...

The seival, also known as the willow whale, is not content with plankton alone. Sei whales collectively attack shoals of sardine, pollock and other fish, confuse them with tail blows and swallow them. The same fate befalls flocks of small squids.

The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is the most versatile hunter of the minke whales. In warm seas, where there is a lot of plankton, the hunchback feeds like an ordinary filter fish. But in the northern waters, the diet of the humpback whale changes dramatically - it turns into an ichthyophage. Capelin, saury, herring and other schooling fish become its prey. A flock of humpbacks operates in a coordinated manner, using rather complex hunting techniques.

toothed whales

Unlike baleen whales, which swallow their prey in bulk, toothed whales grab their prey one by one. The sperm whale and the bottlenose feed on cephalopods. Small toothed whales mainly eat fish. Killer whales prey on warm-blooded - penguins, seals, their flocks attack large whales and tear them apart. In English, a killer whale is called a killer whale, that is, a killer whale.

sperm whale prey

The most impressive representative of toothed whales is the sperm whale. A mature male reaches 20 meters in length and weighs 50 tons. The prey of the sperm whale to match the hunter is the giant squid of the genus Architeuthis, living at depths below 500 m.

Diving in search of food, the sperm whale is able to hold its breath for up to an hour and a half. The maximum proven depth of this whale is 2 km. Sunlight does not penetrate such a water column, so the sperm whale looks for prey using echolocation. Loud clicks emitted by him, jamming squid and disorienting them in space. But even a stunned giant squid is a dangerous rival, especially for females and young whales.

Although the fights of the sperm whale with the kraken take place far from human eyes, it is not difficult to guess that the whale almost always comes out victorious. In the stomachs of sperm whales, whole heaps of "beaks" (squid jaws) are found. The skin of an adult whale is dotted with circles - battle scars from cephalopod suckers.

Not finding squids nearby, the sperm whale preys on other bottom dwellers. Those who hid (octopuses, stingrays and others), the whale scares away, furrowing the silt with its lower jaw, which can open at a right angle. Nature has supplied the sperm whale with a cunning bait - the white skin around its mouth is inhabited by phosphorescent bacteria. Deep-sea creatures willingly swim into the light - and get directly to the dinner of the sperm whale.