There are many different species of whales and they can be grouped into two different groups. They were very abundant until they began to be hunted for their meat and oil. Once people discovered that many were extinct or endangered then most countries have banned whaling. There are still a few countries where whaling is legal. There are several organizations that are in place to protect these animals.
There are two different types of whale’s baleen varieties and toothed varieties. A Baleen species has baleen in its mouth which is like a sieved. These creatures filter plankton from the water for food. Baleen varieties tend to be the largest of their species. Toothed varieties have teeth and eat squid and fish. They use echolocation in order to sense their environment.
They are not fish but they are mammals as they breath air, produce and feed their young milk and are warm blooded. They are able to survive in the cold water because of the layer of blubber that is under their skin.
This blubber acts as insulation as well as can be metabolized for energy when food is scarce. They breathe through their blowholes on the top of their heads and baleen species have two different blowholes.
Most times these animals are considered predators though most only eat plankton or krill. They actually do not drink seawater but get all of the water that they need through metabolizing food and fat. You may not know that they will actually chose where they want to breath and they do not sleep because there is the possibility of drowning. However only a section of their brain sleeps at once.
200 million animals were killed during the 20th century as they are prized for their ambergris, oil, blubber and meat. Some other smaller ones tend to be caught as by catch due to fisheries. These drown in the nets as do dolphins.
Whales communication has long fascinated Astrid Kelly while Watching the whale along the East Coast of South Africa.
categories: Wildlife,Science,Biology,Flora and Fauna,Animalia,Zoology,Chordata,Mammalia,Cetacea,Endangered Animals,Animal Behavior