Introduction Whales are pretty interesting because of their unique sizes, shapes and way of doing things. Male whales are called bulls, female whales are called cows and young whales are called calves. I hope you enjoy my report.
Baleen and Toothed Whales There are two categories of whales: Baleen and Toothed. They have many differences. Toothed whales have teeth, but Baleen whales have Baleen plates, which hang down from the roofs of their mouths. The Toothed whales have one blowhole and the baleen whales have two. The largest whales are baleen. Some examples of Baleen whales are Humpback, Blue and Gray. Some examples of toothed whales are Orcas, Sperm, Narwhal and Beluga.
Background/Evolution There are more than 80 types of whales. Scientists believe that whales used to be land animals. They think that whales would go into the water for food and very slowly they adapted to the water. As land animals whales relatives were hippos, cattle and deer.
Psychical Description Many kinds of whales have different features and ways of doing things. For example, adult blue whales can grow up to 90 feet long and can weigh up to 148 tons. Baby blue whales are as big as an adult elephant. Blue whales spouts are 30 feet tall (which is taller than this building). A blue whale s heart is about the same size as a small car. A humpback whale s eye is as big as a medium sized plate and the pupil is as big as an orange. A humpback s tail can be a third of its body. Most
whales have dark tops and light bottoms. They re hard to see from above the water and hard for prey to see against the light surface. Whales use their flippers for changing direction as they swim. Their tail is made of all muscle. The bones inside a whale s flipper are very similar to the bones in a human hand. Whale s tails move up and down unlike a fish whose tail moves side to side. Whales can t sleep for a long time because they need to get air so they take a lot of little naps. Snores,
clicks, roars, squeals and groans make up a whale s song.
Diet Baleen whales and toothed whales eat very different things. Baleen whales eat little tiny fish that float through their baleen plates. Baleen plates are kind of like curtains that hang down from the roof of baleen whales mouths. Humpback whales eat little five inch long fish. Blue whales eat three inch long krill and about 9,000 pounds of plankton per day. With every gulp of food baleen whales take in a lot of water. Blue whales take in 66 tons of water
per gulp! Baleen whales get the water out of their mouths by pushing it through their baleen plates with their huge tongue. Toothed whales catch their food in a very different way, by grabbing it with their teeth. Even though they have teeth, toothed whales don t chew their food, they swallow it whole. Toothed whales use a system called echolocation to catch prey that are far away. They make a sound that travels through the water and hits the prey and then the sound bounces back. That helps tham know where
the prey is. Sperm whales dive down 3,000 feet to catch giant squid (3,000 feet is about two Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other!).
Migration Why do whales migrate? They like to be in the Arctic because it s easy for them to find lots of food. But, while giving birth they need the water to be warmer because their calves are born with less blubber than the bulls or cows so they can t tolerate freezing cold water. During migration, whales swim non-stop, they don t even eat. The kind of whale that migrates the longest is the gray whale, who migrate about 12,500 miles per year. That s like traveling
from San Francisco to New York four times in a row!
Life Cycle A lot happens during the six or seven years it takes for a whale to go from being a baby to a parent. It takes ten to twelve months for a baby to be born. Baleen whales nurse for six to eight months. Toothed whales nurse for up to two years. Humpback babies stay with their mom until they re one year old. Whale babies learn by watching their mom. Whales are ready to breed at six years old. Females give birth about every two or three years.
Conclusion Some whales are endangered. They are endangered because people used to hunt them. Hunting whales is now against the law, but some people want the law changed. They want to be able to hunt whales again. Some lipstick companies use whale blubber in their lipsticks. I hope that whales will never go extinct and that this report makes you want to help save the whales.