The largest animal in the world is not the elephant, nor the rhinoceros, it really is not a land animal, because it is a marine mammal. We refer to the blue whale, considered the largest animal on our planet.
The blue whale, the largest animal known throughout history, has suffered greatly due to practices of the human being, being one of the species most affected by the intervention of man. These interesting whales have a long history, which today we want to pass on to you in this file on our site about the blue whale.
Blue Whale Characteristics
The blue whale is an aquatic mammal belonging to the mysticete cetacean species and within the Balaenopteridae family. It is also called blue whale, sharing a family with other whales such as the fin whale or the minke whale.
These whales belong to the baleen group, a name they receive due to the presence of some rows of horny plates, which are called beards, and start from his upper jaw. It has between 300 and 400 barbs on each side of the jaw, each of which is one meter long and 50 centimeters wide.
Within this species, three differentiated subspecies have been recorded:
- B. m. musculus: Found in the North Atlantic Ocean.
- B. m. brevicauda or pygmy: in the Antarctic.
- B. m. intermediate: in the North Pacific.
The body of these whales is elongated and light in color on the belly and bluish gray on the back. Its head is flat and large, making up a quarter of its body.
Blue Whale Size
The average size of an adult fin or blue whale is approximately 24 to 27 meters, however, in some cases Specimens with a length of more than 30 meters have been recorded. Specifically, it was a whale that measured 33.63 meters in total.
In the case of baby blue whales, called calves, the average length is about 8 meters.
Given these dimensions, the blue whale is, without a doubt, the largest animal on our planet, even larger than any prehistoric animal.
How much does the blue whale weigh
Adult blue whales have a body mass of between 100 and 120 tons. The weight record is held by a whale from the Pacific Ocean, whose recorded weight was 173 tons.[1]
In this case, the calves reach weights that are close to 2.5 tons, gaining about 90 kilograms per day based on consumption unique and exclusive of breast milk.
Blue Whale Habitat
Blue whales are scattered throughout all the planet's oceans There are different populations, usually differentiated in their location according to their subspecies. However, with the arrival of the cold, the blue whale migrates to warmer places, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
The largest population is that of B. m. musculus, present in the northeast Pacific, ranging from the coast of Alaska to those of Costa Rica, with about 2,000 recorded specimens.
What are the customs and what does the blue whale eat
The blue whale is a migratory animal, which lives in all the world's oceans, but prefers the cold waters of the polar circle in summer and the warm ones of the equator in winter.
They are known for the power of their songs, since it is estimated that the song of a blue whale can be heard by another that is up to 1,500 kilometers away, being these powerful and low-frequency vocalizations what allows its good dispersion in the water.
Blue whale reproduction begins at the end of autumn, when mating begins, which continues until the end of winter. In addition, they are mammalian and viviparous animals.
As for the blue whale's diet, it feeds on krill, a microscopic crustacean. To consume these animals, the blue whale ingests thousands of liters of water, expelling it later with the force of its tongue and passing the water through its baleen. These beards serve to filter the krill, which is retained in them. In this process, they also usually eat the odd fish or small crustacean.
Is the blue whale endangered?
Blue Whales are listed under the species tag at Critically Endangered by the IUCN [2], being a truly worrying situation that requires extreme measures to save the species.
This situation has arisen after many years of hunting, because whale meat was and is highly valued in various places. They were hunted indiscriminately, even calves were harpooned. Currently, hunting for blue whales has been banned in many countries since the International Whaling Commission took emergency measures in 1966 to try to ensure the survival of this species. Despite the ban on their hunting, the recovery of blue whale populations has not been pronounced.
