Whales
As I opened the newspaper this
morning the thing I noticed was a dead whale washed up on a popular beach of
South Africa. And I was too eager to search the web about it.
A South African beach popular with Christmas holidaymakers has been closed until the carcass of a beached whale is removed amid concerns its blood may attract sharks, the City of Cape Town said.
Local media described it as a humpback whale measuring over 14 metres (46 feet) in length and said two sharks had been spotted in the area.“The immediate area around the whale carcass has been cordoned off and this area is closed to members of the public ... The blood and debris from the carcass can attract sharks to the area,” the city said in a statement.The affected area was the Strand Beach, a stretch of sand east of Cape Town.Great whites, the largest predatory species of shark, are common in the cool Atlantic waters off Cape Town and sometimes attack surfers or swimmers. They would not be expected to attack a whale and it was not immediately clear how the humpback had died.
The previous night I was watching the
movie "Finding Nemo" and the only thing that rotated inside my head
was whale whale and whale.....
That's why I did a quick survey about
"Whales"
Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Average life span in the wild: 80 to 90 years
Size: 82 to 105 ft (25 to 32 m)
Weight: Up to 200 tons (181,437 kg)
Group name: Pod
Protection status: Endangered
Diet: Carnivore
Average life span in the wild: 80 to 90 years
Size: 82 to 105 ft (25 to 32 m)
Weight: Up to 200 tons (181,437 kg)
Group name: Pod
Protection status: Endangered
Did you know?
When a blue whale exhales, the spray from its blowhole can reach nearly 30 ft (9m) into the air.
When a blue whale exhales, the spray from its blowhole can reach nearly 30 ft (9m) into the air.
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Blue whales
are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent
marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet (30 meters) long and upwards
of 200 tons (181 metric tons). Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an
elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.
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| Heart of a Blue Whale |
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Blue whales
reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of
tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a
single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tons (3.6 metric tons) of krill a day.
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Blue whales
are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like
material, called baleen, attached to their upper jaws. The giant animals feed
by first gulping an enormous mouthful of water, expanding the pleated skin on
their throat and belly to take it in. Then the whale's massive tongue forces the
water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates. Thousands of krill are
left behind—and then swallowed.
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| Jaws of a Blue Whale |
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| Baleen plates of the upper jaw |
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Blue whales
look true blue underwater, but on the surface their colouring is more a mottled
blue-gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish hue from the millions of
microorganisms that take up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a
broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that ends in wide, triangular flukes.
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Blue whales
live in all the world's oceans occasionally swimming in small groups but
usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and
undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives.
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These
graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour (eight
kilometers an hour), but accelerate to more than 20 miles an hour (32
kilometers an hour) when they are agitated. Blue whales are among the loudest
animals on the planet. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and
it’s thought that, in good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to
1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. Scientists think they use these
vocalizations not only to communicate, but, along with their excellent hearing,
to sonar-navigate the lightless ocean depths.
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Really Big
Babies-
Blue whale calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) and stretching to 25 feet (8 meters). It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds (91 kilograms) every day for its first year.
Blue whale calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) and stretching to 25 feet (8 meters). It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds (91 kilograms) every day for its first year.
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Blue whales
are among Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by
counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a
close estimate of the animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this
method was determined to be around 110 years old. Average lifespan is estimated
at around 80 to 90 years.
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Between
10,000 and 25,000 blue whales are believed to still swim the world's oceans.
Aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the
brink of extinction. Between 1900 and the mid-1960s, some 360,000 blue whales
were slaughtered. They finally came under protection with the 1966
International Whaling Commission, but they've managed only a minor recovery
since then.
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