Your Daily Facts about Whales
Whales are mammals fully adapted to aquatic life.
Whales breathe air.
There are two types of whales that are identified by scientists, baleen whales and toothed whales, having each of these categories many sub species.
There are 15 species of baleen whales and 74 toothed whales (42 are dolphins).
Baleen whales have two nostrils, or blowholes.
Toothed whales eat fish and plants. They have one nostril, or blowhole.
The blue whale, which can grow to about 100 feet in length.
The longest-living whale species is thought to be the bowhead whale, which may live to over 200 years old!
Whales give birth every 2-3 years. Females nurse their calves – a baby blue whale may drink over 100 gallons of milk a day!
A new born baby blue whale may weigh two tons and be 25 feet long.
At 2.4 m (8 ft) long the blue whale possesses the largest penis in the world.
Whales have a four-chambered heart.
Flippers of the humpback whale can be as long as 15 feet.
The humpback whale eats 2 tons of fish and planktonic crustaceans a day.
The fin whale is one of the fastest whales. They can swim over 20 miles per hour.
Sperm whales have the largest heads in the animal kingdom.
The whales lungs can store at each inspiration 5,000 liters of air.
The so-called killer whales can be 9.5 m (32 ft) long, 6 tons heavy and have 50 dagger-like teeth.
Killer Whales eat up to 5% of their body weight each day.
Blue whales can produce sounds louder than a jet engine (188 dB vs. jet engine’s 140 dB) and can communicate with other whales up to 1,000 miles away.