Beluga ( Delphinapterus leucas) Facts – Distribution – In the Zoo". World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012 . Retrieved 5 December 2011. There are two types of whales: toothed and baleen. Toothed whales, as the name suggests, have teeth, which are used to hunt and eat squid, fish, and seals. Toothed whales include sperm whales, as well as dolphins, porpoises, and orcas, among others. The narwhal’s “horn” is actually one long tooth protruding through its lip. a b c d e f g h i j k l Sears, R.; Perrin, W. F. (2009). "Blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus)". In Perrin, W. F.; Würsig, B.; Thewissen, J. G. M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of marine mammals. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. pp.120–124. Hovhannes, Alan (1970). "And God Created Great Whales (1970) for Orchestra and Whale Songs". Archived from the original on 24 May 2005 . Retrieved 10 October 2007. Lam, Andy (Fall 1999). "The Convergent Evolution of Marine Fish and Whales". The University of Arizona . Retrieved 17 January 2017.

O'Connor, S.; Campbell, R.; Cortez, H.; Knowles, T. (2009). Whale Watching Worldwide: tourism numbers, expenditures and expanding economic benefits (PDF) (Report). International Fund for Animal Welfare. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2015 . Retrieved 29 August 2015. O'Connell, M.; Berrow, S. (2015). "Records from the Irish Whales and Dolphin Group for 2013". Irish Naturalists' Journal. 34 (2): 154–161. Klinowska, Margaret (1991). Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales of the World: the IUCN Red Data Book (PDF). Columbia University Press, NY: IUCN Publications. ISBN 978-2-88032-936-5. To feed the newborn, whales, being aquatic, must squirt the milk into the mouth of the calf. Nursing can occur while the mother whale is in the vertical or horizontal position. While nursing in the vertical position, a mother whale may sometimes rest with her tail flukes remaining stationary above the water. This position with the flukes above the water is known as "whale-tail-sailing." Not all whale-tail-sailing includes nursing of the young, as whales have also been observed tail-sailing while no calves were present. [67]The physics of bubble rings and other diver's exhausts". Deep Ocean's Diving Science. Archived from the original on 6 October 2006 . Retrieved 19 December 2015. Kennedy, Robert; Perrin, W.F.; Wursig, B.; Thewissen, J. G. M. (2008). "Right whales ( E. glacialis, E. japonica, and E. australis". Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. ISBN 978-0-12-373553-9.

Bianucci, G.; Marx, F. G.; Collareta, A.; Di Stefano, A.; Landini, W.; Morigi, C.; Varola, A. (2019). "Rise of the titans: baleen whales became giants earlier than thought". Biology Letters. 15 (5): 20190175. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0175. PMC 6548731. PMID 31039728. Whales are the largest animals on Earth and they live in every ocean. The massive mammals range from the 600-pound dwarf sperm whale to the colossal blue whale, which can weigh more than 200 tons and stretch up to 100 feet long—almost as long as a professional basketball court. Assessment and Update Status Report on the Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus" (PDF). Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. 2002 . Retrieved 19 April 2007. The global blue whale population is estimated to be 5,000–15,000 mature individuals and 10,000–25,000 total as of 2018. By comparison, there were at least 140,000 mature whales in 1926. There are an estimated total of 1,000–3,000 whales in the North Atlantic, 3,000–5,000 in the North Pacific and 5,000–8,000 in the Antarctic. There are possibly 1,000–3,000 whales in the eastern South Pacific while the pygmy blue whale may number 2,000–5,000 individuals. [1] Blue whales have been protected in areas of the Southern Hemisphere since 1939. In 1955 they were given complete protection in the North Atlantic under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling; this protection was extended to the Antarctic in 1965 and the North Pacific in 1966. [113] [114] The protected status of North Atlantic blue whales was not recognized by Iceland until 1960. [115] In the US, the species is protected under the Endangered Species Act. [59] Bebej, R. M.; ul-Haq, M.; Zalmout, I. S.; Gingerich, P. D. (June 2012). "Morphology and Function of the Vertebral Column in Remingtonocetus domandaensis (Mammalia, cetacea) from the Middle Eocene Domanda Formation of Pakistan". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 19 (2): 77–104. doi: 10.1007/S10914-011-9184-8. S2CID 17810850.

Whale calls

Blue whale". Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Archived from the original on 3 March 2023 . Retrieved 3 March 2023. Angry SJW demands student journalist be punished for filming #Trigglypuff, Breitbart on May 3, 2016 Brain size was previously considered a major indicator of the intelligence of an animal. Since most of the brain is used for maintaining bodily functions, greater ratios of brain-to-body mass may increase the amount of brain mass available for more complex cognitive tasks. Allometric analysis indicates that mammalian brain size scales at approximately the ⅔ or ¾ exponent of the body mass. Comparison of a particular animal's brain size with the expected brain size based on such allometric analysis provides an encephalisation quotient that can be used as another indication of animal intelligence. Sperm whales have the largest brain mass of any animal on Earth, averaging 8,000 cubic centimetres (490in 3) and 7.8 kilograms (17lb) in mature males, in comparison to the average human brain which averages 1,450 cubic centimetres (88in 3) in mature males. [61] The brain-to-body mass ratio in some odontocetes, such as belugas and narwhals, is second only to humans. [62] Smith, Craig R.; Baco, Amy R. (2003). "Ecology of Whale Falls at the Deep-Sea Floor" (PDF). Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review. 41: 311–354.

Odontocetes, such as the sperm whale, possess teeth with cementum cells overlying dentine cells. Unlike human teeth, which are composed mostly of enamel on the portion of the tooth outside of the gum, whale teeth have cementum outside the gum. Only in larger whales, where the cementum is worn away on the tip of the tooth, does enamel show. Mysticetes have large whalebone, as opposed to teeth, made of keratin. Mysticetes have two blowholes, whereas Odontocetes contain only one. [37] Blue whales appear to avoid directly competing with other baleen whales. [72] [73] [74] Different whale species select different feeding spaces and times as well as different prey species. [67] [75] [76] In the Southern Ocean, baleen whales appear to feed on Antarctic krill of different sizes, which may lessen competition between them. [77] Reproduction and birth A blue whale calf with its mother It was believed that the Land Whale was the Air segment to the Mask of Power. The Skylanders traveled to Tempest Towers where the Whale was held in a zoo, only to be imprisoned by the Cyclops Queen. Lightning Rod and Drobot were trapped in the tank housing the Land Whale to be eaten, with the massive beast nearly succeeding in devouring the two Skylanders. They were freed by Pop Fizz, and Lightning Rod threw the Land Whale away from Tempest Towers towards the unknown with Kaos and his Drow forces in hot pursuit.

Steeman ME, Hebsgaard MB, Fordyce RE, Ho SYW, Rabosky DL, Nielsen R, Rahbek C, Glenner H, Sorensen MV, Willerslev E (2009). "Radiation of Extant Cetaceans Driven by Restructuring of the Oceans". Systematic Biology. 58 (6): 573–585. doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syp060. PMC 2777972. PMID 20525610. Which countries are still whaling". International Fund for Animal Welfare . Retrieved 29 August 2015. Schrope, Mark (2003). "Whale deaths caused by US Navy's sonar". Nature. 415 (6868): 106. Bibcode: 2002Natur.415..106S. doi: 10.1038/415106a. PMID 11805797. Ford, Catherine (July 2015). "John Newton's 'A Savage History: Whaling in the South Pacific and Southern Oceans' ". The Monthly . Retrieved 30 March 2022.

Blue whales are formally classified as endangered under both the US Endangered Species Act [116] and the IUCN Red List. [1] They are also listed on AppendixI under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) [117] and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. [118] Although for some populations there is not enough information on current abundance trends (e.g., pygmy blue whales), others are critically endangered (e.g., Antarctic blue whales). [119] [120] Threats Dead blue whale on flensing platform Scammon, C. M. (1874). The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America. New York: Dover.

Conservation

The blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters (98ft) and weighing up to 199 tonnes (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known ever to have existed. [a] The blue whale's long and slender body can be of various shades of greyish-blue dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. Four subspecies are recognized: B. m. musculus in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia in the Southern Ocean, B. m. brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale) in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, B. m. indica in the Northern Indian Ocean. There is also a population in the waters off Chile that may constitute a fifth subspecies. The blue whale's diet consists almost exclusively of krill. [11] Blue whales capture krill through lunge feeding, they swim towards them at high speeds as they open their mouths up to 80° [11] [63] They may engulf 220 metric tons (220 long tons; 240 short tons) of water at one time. [67] They squeeze the water out through their baleen plates with pressure from the throat pouch and tongue, and swallow the remaining krill. [11] [63] Blue whales have been recorded making 180° rolls during lunge-feeding, possibly allowing them to search the prey field and find the densest patches. [68] Blue whales live around 80–90 years or more. [11] [52] Scientists look at a blue whale's earwax or ear plug to estimate its age. Each year, a light and dark layer of wax is laid corresponding with fasting during migration and feeding time. Each set is thus an indicator of age. [53] [54] [55] The oldest blue whale determined using this method was 110 years old. [52] [56] The maximum age of a pygmy blue whale determined this way is 73 years. [57] In addition, female blue whales develop scars or corpora albicantia on their ovaries every time they ovulate. [58] In a female pygmy blue whale, one corpus albicans is formed on average every 2.6 years. [57] Behaviour and ecology The blow of a blue whale