What does a whale eat? How whales sleep and other interesting facts about the amazing giants Lee whales have gills

Some of the whales are among the largest animals in the world. Biologists distinguish between two suborders of whales - toothed and baleen. About 80 species belong to the toothed whales, and only 10 to the baleen. The body length of toothed whales ranges between 1.3 and 20 m, and the weight is from 30 kg to 40 tons. The body length of baleen whales ranges from 5 to 35 m, weight 4.5 -135 tons. The forelimbs of all whales turned into hard pectoral fins, and the hind limbs and pelvis disappeared altogether. However, a few bones from the pelvis remained in the skeleton. Whales have a large head and a vertical tail fin. They swim in all the oceans of the planet.

Toothed whales, as the name implies, have teeth in their mouths. They are predators, prey on cephalopods and fish, as well as penguins and seals. The most famous among them is the sperm whale (Physeter catodon), with a body length of up to 20 m and a weight of up to 40 tons. Much smaller than the sperm whale, the grind, or ball-headed dolphin (Globicephala melaena), with a black-brown color and a body length of about 8 m, and grayish - white beluga whale (body length up to 6.5 m). A close relative of the pilot whale, the black and white killer whale (Orcinus orca) (body length up to 8 m, weight 7 tons) is a large and predatory dolphin, about which sinister legends circulate among sailors.

The most famous group of toothed whales are dolphins. These animals are known to everyone from dolphinariums and television programs. Usually we are talking about the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), reaching a length of 4 m and a weight of 350 kg. At the end of the 20th century, it is numerically estimated at 5 million.

In the mouth, baleen whales have a filtering apparatus made of narrow vertical plates with a bristle-like fringe. These plates form a filter in which different animals get stuck. Baleen whales open their mouths, take in water and close it again. They then squeeze out the water, and the food remains on the plates.

The most famous species of baleen whales are the dwarf smooth (Caperea marginata), gray, humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and, above all, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). The pygmy right whale (body length up to 6.5 m, weight up to 3.5 tons) is the most common of the baleen whales. Its number is estimated at 300 thousand animals. The humpback whale (body length 19 m, weight 45 tons) is the most interesting to watch. This powerful animal sometimes jumps out of the water many times in a row.

The blue whale is the largest living animal on Earth. It reaches a length of 35 m, and the mass reaches 130 tons, which is equal to the mass of 30 elephants, 150 cars or 1600 people. Due to modern fishing techniques, the blue whale is today on the verge of extinction. Its number is estimated at only 10 thousand individuals.

The fin whale (V. physalus) is inferior in size to the blue one: its length is only 19.5–21 m. This slender animal has quite high speed move - 14-17 km / h, if you scare him, the speed will increase to 25-30 km / h, and at the moment of a jerk it can even exceed 40 km / h. Unfortunately, the number of fin whales is declining every year.

Gray whale (Eschrichtius gibbosus)

Value	Body length 12-15 m, weight 25-30 tons
signs	Large baleen whale; pointed head slightly laterally compressed; body color gray-brown with numerous light spots; the body is overgrown with many barnacles
Food	Bottom invertebrates, crustaceans, sponges, worms and other small animals
reproduction	Pregnancy for about 1 year; 1 cub; newborn weight 700-1200 kg
habitats	East coast of Russia and west coast of North America from the Bering Sea (fat in summer) to the Gulf of California (calves); regular annual migration from north to south and back; the number is estimated at 12 thousand individuals

White whale (Delphinapterus leucas)

Value	Body length 4-6.5 m, weight 500-1400 kg
signs	Whale of medium size; round head with a convex forehead ("melon"); dorsal fin absent; the color of young animals is gray, adults - pure white
Food	Fish, as well as crustaceans, mollusks and worms; looking for food both at the bottom and in the middle layers of the sea
reproduction	Pregnancy for about 1 year; 1 cub; birth weight about 70 kg, body length about 1.5 m; cubs are born in July - August
habitats	Swims close to the coast, especially likes fjords and estuaries of large rivers; can sometimes swim in rivers; common in arctic seas northern hemisphere; total number of 15-20 thousand animals

whales

Of all the mammals that inhabit the Earth, the largest - whales. They are toothy and mustachioed. The former include sperm whales, killer whales, dolphins, porpoises, beluga whales; they have teeth with which they grab prey. There are 23 species of toothed whales in the seas of the USSR, and only 9 species of baleen whales. In baleen whales, instead of teeth, 300-400 triangular horn plates hang down on both sides of the upper jaw. This is the "mustache". The length of such plates sometimes reaches 4 m.

In some species of baleen whales, the belly is furrowed with numerous longitudinal folds - such whales are called minke whales; others have a smooth belly - these are smooth whales; the third - gray whales - have 2-3 folds on the throat. They got their name because of the gray color of the body. All whales swim and dive quickly, they are very similar in body shape to fish, only the caudal fin blades are located horizontally, not vertically. But they cannot be attributed to fish: they are sea animals. Whales breathe with lungs, they have a constant body temperature, they give birth to live cubs and feed them with milk.

For a whole year, the female bears a cub. It is born under the surface of the sea. A newborn is born quite large - only 2-3 times smaller than the mother, sighted and mobile. He follows his mother everywhere, who feeds him with milk for more than six months. Milk is half fat; it is 8-10 times more nutritious than cow's milk, which is why whales grow so fast. The cub does not have soft lips, and it does not suck milk. The cub only grabs the mother's nipple tightly with the tip of the mouth, and the mother squeezes special muscles on her belly and injects milk directly into his mouth.

A group jump of trained dolphins in a lagoon in the Hawaiian Islands.

Toothed whales. - sperm whales. The length of large male sperm whales reaches 20 m, females are half that. Sperm whales live in small herds. A herd of females is usually led by a male. Such herds are found in the tropics, but it happens that they also appear off the coast of Kamchatka.

Even a large vessel will have a bad time if a sperm whale hits it with its head! And it is huge, it weighs twenty tons - almost as much as the entire body of a whale, the shape is reminiscent of a mooring bollard - blunt, as if chopped off in front. The lower jaw is elongated and has about 50 shiny sharp teeth. Above the upper jaw of the sperm whale is a huge fat pad - the spermaceti sac.

Whales: 1 - bowhead whale; 2 - blue (blue) whale; 3 - fin whale; 4 - seyval; 5 - minke whale; 6 - gray whale: 7 - humpback whale; c - sperm whale (male); 9 - sperm whale (female).

In one killed sperm whale - an eighteen-meter giant - 400 squids 20-30 cm long were found in the stomach. Sometimes sperm whales attack very large squids, up to 12 m long. Hunting for squid, sperm whales often dive to great depths - to the very bottom, where only deep-sea animals can live. A case is known when a sperm whale got entangled in an underwater cable and broke it at a depth of about a thousand meters.

To descend to such depths and for a long time (up to one hour) he is allowed by a special body structure. The sperm whale at the end of the snout has only one nostril - the left one, and the right one ends with a large subcutaneous air sac. In it, the sperm whale carries an additional supply of air to the depth, using it for sound signaling and as a reserve of oxygen. A large number of The sperm whale also stores oxygen with the help of the hemoglobin dye contained in the muscles - the so-called myoglobin. The blood flow in a diving sperm whale is redistributed so that oxygen is primarily supplied to the brain and heart muscle.

Killer whales and dolphins. Sometimes in the sea you can meet herds of relatively large toothed whales, 5-7 m long. They have high dorsal fins and bright white spots above their eyes. These are marine predators - killer whales. They attack seals, seals, dolphins, and sometimes even a large whale, open its mouth and pull out a soft, fat tongue from there, trying to drown the giant. Sometimes a whale pursued by these predators is thrown ashore in fear and here it dies most often from overheating, as its body develops too high a temperature that the air cannot cool. Killer whales are afraid to attack a sperm whale - its teeth are too strong and its strength is not small.

Now killer whales have begun to be kept in captivity in huge marine pools - oceanariums - in the USA, Canada, England, Japan and other countries. It turned out that these are fast learning animals that lend themselves well to training. The performance of trained killer whales is shown to the general public. The smallest whales - dolphins - can be found in the Black Sea. There are 50 species of them in the World Ocean.

Dolphins: 1 - small killer whale; 2 - large killer whale; 3 - gray dolphin; 4 - grind; 5 - white whale; 6 - narwhal (unicorn); 7 - porpoise; 8 - common dolphin; 9 - bottlenose dolphin.

Most species of dolphins live in warm waters, some in temperate waters and only rare in cold waters. Large six-meter dolphins without a dorsal fin live in our Arctic seas - beluga whales (white dolphins) and narwhals (with spotted coloration), the males of which are armed with a straight bone tusk up to 2-3 m long. Freshwater dolphins live in the rivers of South America and India - the Amazonian inia and susuk. Since they live in murky waters and forage by digging in the muddy bottom, their eyesight is poorly developed, and there are tactile hairs on their long beak. The common dolphin, which lives in our Black Sea, has about 200 sharp teeth; with them he keeps slippery fish.

Dolphins are herd animals with a streamlined and well-controlled body, swiftly swimming almost at the speed of passenger trains. Vigorous movements cause an excess of heat in their body, which they give off to sea water through their fins. A dolphin pulled out of the water, if it beats, has hot fins.

Dolphins are perfectly oriented in the water by the method of echolocation: first they make clicking sounds, and then they pick up the echo of these sounds reflected from surrounding objects. They make a variety of sounds with the help of a special sound-signal organ, which is located in the nostril and consists of muscles and three pairs of air sacs. With the help of the same organ, a dolphin can copy the words of a person, like a parrot. The hearing of dolphins is very subtle: they can hear ultrasounds with a frequency of up to 200 kHz, and a person hears sound vibrations of no more than 20 kHz. The brain of dolphins is very large, reminiscent of the human brain in shape and number of convolutions in the cerebral cortex.

Now dolphins are used as circus and laboratory animals. They are kept and studied here and abroad in special pools. Scientists are studying the skin of fast-moving dolphins in order to create the skin of high-speed ships in its likeness, they are trying to create the same portable and interference-resistant devices - echolocators that dolphins have (see the article "Biology - Technology"). These animals are easy to train and learn various tricks. It is possible that in the near future dolphins will be tamed. They will help fishermen find shoals of fish, drive them into nets, serve as communications and help aquanauts with various underwater activities. Taming dolphins will help a person to master the riches of the sea.

Baleen whales. The largest animal in the world is the blue whale. The length of this minke whale reaches 33 m, and it weighs up to 150 tons (approximately 25-30 African elephants weigh the same). Longitudinal folds stretch along his belly. The heart of a large whale weighs up to half a ton, the tongue - up to 3 tons, and the lungs can hold up to 14 m 3 of air. The blue whale, moving at a speed of 33-37 km / h, can develop a power of 500 hp. With.

Blue whales feed on small fish, mollusks, crustaceans. To feed, such a giant needs to catch hundreds of kilograms of small animals. This is where his "mustache" is needed. Having found a place where there are many crustaceans, the whale opens its mouth and swims forward. Water is filtered between the plates, and the crustaceans get stuck in the "whiskers", like in a sieve. Then he closes his mouth and swallows the prey. One and a half tons of large crustaceans were once removed from the stomach of a captured blue whale.

These whales begin to breed as early as the age of five. By the age of 20, their growth stops, although they live up to 50 years. Blue whales feed in the northern and southern cold seas, and give birth to cubs in warm ones.

Much more often in our waters there is a fin whale, or a herring minke whale, a whale of medium length (18-20 m). His belly is snow-white, and his “whiskers” are blue. Like the blue whale, the fin whale lives far from the coast, but, chasing fish, occasionally even enters the mouths of large rivers.

Whales are amazing creatures. Their ancestors appeared on Earth 55 million years ago - long before the appearance of the first man.

Despite the fact that whale hunting is prohibited by the laws of many countries, their destruction does not stop. For Russia, this problem is especially relevant - dozens of species of whales, dolphins, seals live in the seas of our country, many of which are endangered.

The most curious facts from the life of whales are in the selection of AiF.ru.

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Whales are the largest animals in the world

On average, the length of a whale is from 22 to 27 meters, with females being larger than males. The largest whale was caught in 1926: its length was 33 meters, and the animal weighed at least 150 tons. It is believed that blue whales were somewhat reduced as a result of predatory fishing, but in the past, when blue whales were more numerous, individuals up to 37 meters in length came across among them.

It is known that the average whale weighs as much as 2700 people. The heart of an animal is the size of a car and weighs 600-700 kilotons, and 8,000 liters of blood is pumped through the vessels of a whale with a diameter of a bucket of water. In addition, the blue whale is able to make the loudest sound of all living things - other whales are able to hear its low frequencies at a distance of more than 16,000 km.

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Whales "hear" with their throats

Whales do not have the traditional hearing organs for animals - external ears. They hear with the lower jaw, from which the sound penetrates to the middle and inner ear.

Since whales have poor eyesight and no sense of smell, hearing is their main sense, which helps them navigate underwater, communicate and get food. Therefore, ships and other noise produced by people in the world's oceans give whales a lot of inconvenience.

A whale eats a million calories a day

For 8 months a year, whales eat almost nothing and survive on stored fat. However, all summer they feed almost non-stop, absorbing up to three tons of food per day. The whale's diet mainly consists of algae and small crustaceans. Sometimes whales eat small fish.

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Whale tails are unique

The tail of whales can be compared to human fingerprints. The cuts of the furrow, together with scars and spots of brown algae, create unique patterns on the tails of whales.

Whales and hippos had a common ancestor

The distant ancestors of whales were land animals that walked on four legs. Then they went to the ocean in search of more affordable and plentiful food. At first, the ancestors of whales - pakicetes - hunted fish in shallow water, and returned to the shore to rest. But competition forced the animals to swim farther and farther - deep into the ancient ocean, and the opportunity to return to land disappeared.

Molecular genetic evidence suggests that cetaceans are close relatives of artiodactyls, in particular hippos.

Whales can drown while sleeping

Whales, if necessary, can not sleep for three months.

And if they fall asleep, then only at a shallow depth at the very surface of the water. Due to the high content of light adipose tissue in the body, their weight slightly exceeds the specific gravity of water. Therefore, the sleeping whale descends very slowly. From time to time, the animal strikes its tail in a dream and rises to the surface. Then, inhaling air, it slowly and passively sinks until the next blow with its tail.

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Whales breathe oxygen

The blue whale inhales and exhales 1-4 times per minute at rest, but can go without oxygen for two hours. Young whales breathe much more frequently than adults.

Whales inhale and exhale very quickly - almost simultaneously - due to the special structure of the respiratory tract. In 1 second, a blue whale inhales about 2 thousand liters of air, in total, up to 14 cubic meters of air can fit in the lungs of this giant. During the stay under water, the breathing was tightly closed with a valve.

A baby whale can reach 9 meters in length at birth. Mother's milk contains up to 50% fat, while it is rich in protein. Fat and protein make up half the weight of milk, so it is very thick. During the day, the cub receives up to 90 liters of milk. By one and a half years, it grows up to 20 m in length and 45-50 tons of weight.

People believed that you can live in the stomach of a whale

In the old days, there were many legends about how shipwrecked people were swallowed by whales, and traveled for many months in the stomach of these animals.

In fact, they wouldn't even be able to get through the throat opening. The fact is that the throat of a blue whale in its diameter does not exceed its navel (that is, the size of a saucer) or slightly smaller than its eardrum (about the size of a small plate).

The only species of whale that a person can crawl into the throat is the sperm whale. However, the acidity in his stomach is so high that it is simply impossible to survive in a whale's belly.

The whales are talking

Whales that live long in captivity. For a long time this was considered a myth, but then scientists set up an experiment on the beluga. The animal was trained to “speak” on command, put on a harness of sensors, and found out that the whale imitates human “speech” by sharply increasing the pressure in its nasal cavities and forcing sound lips to vibrate - special formations in the nasopharynx, with the help of which many cetaceans make sounds .

If a whale lives in the water and is similar in shape to a fish, then why is it not considered a fish?

But because a whale is a marine mammal that comes from earthly ancestors. For many millennia spent in the water, the whales began to resemble fish in shape, but in the structure of the body and way of life they remained similar to land animals.

For example, whale fins have an internal structure that resembles a hand with five fingers. On the body of some whales there are even bones in place of the hind legs! But the most important difference between whales and fish is that, like all other mammals, whales feed their young with mother's milk. These cubs do not hatch from eggs or caviar, but are born alive. And for some time after birth, the kitten remains next to its mother, who takes care of it.

Since all mammals are warm-blooded, and the whale does not have fur to keep it warm in icy water, instead it has blubber, which is a layer of subcutaneous tissue filled with fat and retains heat like a fur coat.

And whales breathe differently than fish. Instead of gills, they have lungs into which they take in air through two nostrils located at the top of their heads. When whales dive underwater, these nostrils close with small flaps to keep water out. Every five to ten minutes the whale rises to the surface of the water to take a breath. First of all, it noisily spews out exhaust air through the nostrils. As a result of this, the same “fountain” appears, which is always drawn in pictures about whales. Then he draws fresh air into his lungs and dives again to continue moving under water.

Why does the whale have a fountain?

Whales are not fish, but mammals. They are warm-blooded creatures, their young are born as live births, not hatched from eggs. Baby whales feed on their mother's milk, just like other mammals.

But the ancestors of whales, like all other mammals, lived on earth. Therefore, the whales had to adapt to the conditions of life in the water. This means that over millions of years, changes have taken place in their bodies that have given them the opportunity to live in a different environment.

Since whales do not have gills, they breathe with lungs, and their respiratory system has undergone the most changes in the course of evolution. Previously, their nostrils were on the front of the head, then they gradually moved up. Now they form one or two breathing holes that make it easier to get oxygen on the surface of the water.

Under water, the breathing holes are closed by two small valves, and since the air passage is not connected to the mouth, there is no danger of water entering the lungs.

Whales usually come up to the surface for air every 5-10 minutes, but sometimes they can stay underwater for up to 45 minutes! Having emerged on the surface of the water, the whale immediately releases the used air from the lungs. When he does this, a loud noise is heard, audible at a considerable distance. What is the whale fountain made of? This is not water, but simply exhaust air and water vapor.

To completely change the air in the lungs, the whale starts up the fountain several times, after which it plunges deep into the water. Some whales are known for being able to dive to a depth of 600 meters! Sometimes large whales will raise their tails above the water or even jump into the air, leaving the surface of the water completely!

Whale

The smallest animals are crumb shrews. Their body barely reaches four centimeters in length, they weigh only two grams, or even less.

Whales are also mammals, like shrews. But if there are crumbs among the shrews, then some of the whales are giants.

Blue whales are the largest of the whales. They are up to 33 meters long. Fifty steps must be taken to pass such a whale when it lies on the shore. This giant weighs 120 tons!

Compare with the baby shrew. The blue whale is 800 times longer than her. 60 million shrews need to be collected to balance the scale of just one blue whale.

The liver of such a whale weighs at least a ton. And the length of its intestines is 250 meters. A quarter of a kilometer of guts! 14,000 liters of air can hold a whale's lungs in one breath.

Forty or even fifty three-tons is needed to transport one large blue whale. Such a convoy of vehicles will stretch for almost a kilometer.

The thirty-three-meter whale is not only the largest of modern animals. There were no such giants on earth in past times.

Two hundred - three hundred million years ago, giant lizards lived on earth. But even the largest of them was far from the blue whale. The largest of the dinosaurs weighed about 80 tons. True, it reached a length of 26 - 27 meters, but of these meters a fair share fell on the long tail of the lizard.

sea ​​giants bigger than giants sushi. This is no coincidence. Living conditions on land are not favorable for giants. It is more difficult to move here, it is more difficult to feed yourself.

Water is much denser than air. The animal in the water, as it were, loses its weight. It becomes lighter exactly as much as the weight of the water displaced by it. A cubic meter of water weighs approximately one ton. An animal with a volume of one cubic meter in water becomes one ton lighter: this is how much the water displaced by it weighs.

Specific gravity plays a huge role in the life of aquatic animals. With a specific gravity equal to one, the animal, as it were, hangs in the water. In the largest whales, the specific gravity is almost equal to one. The giant does not need to expend much strength to stay in the upper layers of the water so as not to fall to the bottom. He does not feel uncomfortable from his weight.

On land, gravity immediately affects. Look at the usual crayfish. It is very agile in the water, but crawls slowly along the shore. Why? On land, he became heavier, it was more difficult for him to move around: after all, he did not become stronger on the shore.

Once on the shore, the whale does not live very long. He cannot breathe on dry land.

Like all mammals, the whale breathes with lungs. The lungs are the organ of air breathing. To breathe, the whale rises to the surface of the water. And suddenly on land - oddly enough - the whale dies of suffocation!

The weight of the whale came into play. Once ashore, the whale became much heavier. And now, under the weight of the whale's body, it is squeezed internal organs. Keith gasps, his compressed lungs stop working.

A hulk of 120 tons weighing hardly would move on land. In water, such a giant can be very mobile. And whales are a living example of this.

You can tell about an aquatic animal whether it is a good swimmer at a glance. The streamlined body shape is the main feature.

Whales have a fish-like body shape, a powerful tail, and strong muscles. The total weight of the muscles of a thirty-meter whale is 60 - 70 tons. This amount of muscle can develop an energy of about 1700 horsepower. A whale swims at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, large whales can swim at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour.

The power of whales is well known to those who deal with them - whalers. It is not uncommon for a harpooned whale to drag a ship with a displacement of 300-350 tons. "Full back!" commanded the captain. The ship's engine was working with might and main, and the whale was dragging the ship behind him. Yes, how he dragged - at a speed of 14 kilometers per hour!

It is much easier for a giant to feed in water than on land. There is an abundance of food in the ocean. True, it is not distributed here evenly, but in separate clusters. But these accumulations are such that there is enough food in them for more than one giant.

Tiny Calanus crustaceans swim in the upper layers of the water. Often there are so many of them that for many kilometers the water is colored reddish and looks like liquid porridge. A lump of five hundred thousand such crustaceans is equal in volume to one liter.

In the stomach of a blue whale, there are up to 15 thousand liters of small crustaceans. A female blue whale feeding her calf's milk eats 4-5 tons of food per day. And what food! Animal, not vegetable. Much more vegetable food would be needed. Is it easy for such an animal to feed on land? And in the oceans there are many huge animals and they are all full.

Feeding or hiding from danger, the whale can stay under water for half an hour or even longer. Toothed whales, sperm whales, sometimes remain under water for one and a half to two hours: the air supply is so large in their air cavities of the skull and in the lungs.

Having risen to the surface of the water, the whale exhales the exhaust air from the nostrils. He does this in several steps, quickly and with great force. Fountains appear one after another over the water.

Different breeds of whales have different fountains: high and low, narrow and wide, simple and double. The number of fountains thrown in a row is also different.

The fountain is a sign of a whale. Whalers are watching for a fountain to appear above the water. From it they will find out which whale appeared.

They argued for a long time about how this fountain is formed. Many assured that he was a water. And often in the drawings depicted whales throwing a high jet of water from their nostrils.

Accurate observations showed that the fountain is not water. This is warm air.

The body temperature of a whale is 35 - 40 degrees. This is also the temperature of the air exhaled by the whale. This air is rich in water vapor, which quickly cools and thickens when it gets outside. A column of steam appears.

There may also be water splashes in the fountain. This means that the whale exhaled air at the very surface of the water. A layer of water remained above the nostrils, and a strong jet of air threw up its splashes.

It happens that the whale really throws out a water fountain. But only a wounded, dying whale does this. He chokes, and then water is thrown out of his nostrils along with air.

Among mammals, a number of species have adapted to life in the water. Seals and walruses, fur seals, sea otters, or sea otters, as they are also called, and some other animals spend most of their lives in the water. But they give birth and feed their cubs on land or at least on ice.

All cetaceans do not leave the water: they cannot live on land. Their babies are born in the water. Obviously, such a cub should be able to swim from the first hour of its life.

Baby whales are born very large. A twenty-meter female blue whale will give birth to a kitten seven to eight meters long.

For the first 15-20 minutes, a newly born whale stands in the water like a float. During this time, his fins straighten, and then he begins to swim.

The whale does not swim far. All he needs now is his mother's nipple. He finds it and starts eating. He does not have to make special efforts to suck. With a tongue rolled into a tube, it tightly covers the nipple. And the mother injects milk into the baby's mouth, working with the muscles that compress the mammary gland.

The daily portion of the blue whale is 200 - 300 liters of milk. Yes, what! In whale milk 45 - 50 percent fat, it is 12 - 15 times fatter than cow's milk.

For six to seven months, the cub of large whales feeds on milk. During this time, it grows approximately twice. A six-month-old blue whale reaches a length of 16 - 17 meters. Hulk, and he's only six months old!

Whales grow very fast. Already a two-three-year-old whale is acquiring offspring.

It would seem that, giant whales must live a very long time. So they used to think, believing that whales live for hundreds of years; Will such a giant grow up soon? No one knew then that whales grow at an amazing rate.

No, whales don't live very long. 20 - 30 - 40 years - that's the life expectancy of these giants. So, at least, showed the study of the age of whales harvested.

Hunting for whales shortens the life of these animals. The average age of harvested whales is six years. These are young whales. Man does not allow whales to live to old age, he kills them earlier.

If whales were hunted less, then large breeds would have time to live up to 50 years. Probably, they would have lived for 60, 80 years, and maybe even longer.

More than 80 species of cetaceans live in the seas and oceans. They are divided into two groups: baleen whales and toothed whales.

The mouth of a baleen whale of monstrous proportions. The bowhead whale easily fits a boat with four rowers in its mouth. You can put a four-meter pole there, and it will not bend when the whale closes its mouth.

Baleen whales have no teeth. They appear in the fetus of a whale, but quickly disappear, and the whale is born toothless. Embryonic teeth show that the distant ancestors of the baleen whale had teeth.

Horny plates hang down from the upper jaw: three to four "hundreds on each side. Their length is different for different breeds of whales. In a large-mouthed bowhead whale, they are four and a half meters long, in other breeds they are shorter, more often about a meter. These plates are whale mustache.

The mouth of the baleen whale is huge, but its throat is narrow, and swallow big booty he can not. Small crustaceans, small mollusks, floating in millions in the upper layers of the water, are the main food of baleen whales. Some of them catch small fish, and the South African minke even grabs seabirds - penguins.

The Bible tells that a certain Jonah was swallowed up by a whale. Jonah seemed to have lived in his stomach for three days, and then, alive and unharmed, he was thrown out by the whale. The writer of this story did not know whales. A baleen whale cannot swallow an adult: a teenager will get stuck in his throat. The toothed whale has a wider throat, an adult will pass through it, but ... the toothed whale has teeth. Once in a toothed mouth, you will not remain whole.

The baleen whale feeds by filtering water with crustaceans and other small food floating in it. Having taken water into the open mouth, he closes his mouth and lets the water out through the baleen fence. Food stays in the mouth.

Toothed whales don't have whiskers, they have teeth. These teeth are not suitable for chewing: they are conical, sharp. With such teeth, you can hold prey, tear it apart, but you can’t chew it. Toothed whales also attack large prey: their throat is wide.

Both baleen and toothed whales do not chew their food. It crumbles in their stomachs. The stomach of a whale consists of three sections. The first section is muscular. It has no digestive glands, its walls are keratinized. This is where food comes in. The gizzard is the whale's chewing apparatus.

Baleen whales include the largest of the whales - the blue whale. They also include a small whale - a minke whale. Its weight is ten tons, and its length is ten meters. Whalers hardly hunt this whale. It swims very fast and is difficult to hunt and prey is small.

The largest of the toothed whales is the sperm whale. You immediately recognize him in the head. Huge cylindrical head, very small lower jaw. Like a bucket laid on a plank. Sperm whales are up to 20 meters long and weigh up to 100 tons. This big-headed whale is one of the true giants of the seas.

The main food of sperm whales is squid, ten-armed relatives of octopuses. In the stomach of sperm whales, the remains of even giant squids - fifteen-meter monsters were found.

The sperm whale does not have a whalebone: after all, it is a toothed whale, not a baleen whale. It has no more subcutaneous fat than other whales. But he has something else that other whales do not have.

Spermaceti and ambergris are two strange words associated with the sperm whale.

Spermaceti is a fatty substance similar to wax, but very fragile. He goes to the manufacture of ointments and various creams.

Ambergris - painful discharge of the gallbladder. Gray, brown or almost black, it looks like wax. Ambergris is valued for its remarkable property: it perfectly retains odors. Perfume, which includes ambergris, does not exhale for a long time.

The sperm whale has only a lower jaw. A killer whale has two dozen teeth in each jaw. This predator is not in vain called the killer whale. Strong and agile, it attacks not only seals and dolphins. The killer whale is not afraid of the walrus, a flock of hungry killer whales attacks even baleen whales. A ten-meter predator is a thunderstorm of the ocean.

The one and a half meter dorsal fin of a male killer whale is visible from a distance above the wave. You can see it in all oceans.

Man has hunted whales for a long time. The whale has a lot of fat. A large blue whale has up to 50 tons of it. Such whales are rare. On average, a captured whale produces about ten tons of fat. In addition to fat, it gives meat, whalebone.

Thousands of whales were taken every year by whalers who beat the sea giants from boats with simple harpoons. You can't catch up with every whale on a boat in order to hit him with a harpoon. For blue whales, such boats were not terrible.

In the middle of the 19th century, the harpoon gun was invented. She shoots the whale with a harpoon with a grenade on the end. Not a single whale will escape from such a harpoon: you just need to approach him for a cannon shot.

Previously, the whaler delivered the dead whale to the shore, and there it was butchered, the fat was rendered. Now the whale is usually taken to the whaling queen - the ship on which it is butchered, and the whale oil and other products are taken by tankers and cargo ships.

Our whaling queen "Slava" goes every year with a whaling flotilla to the Antarctic. It delivers thousands of tons of whale oil from there. Our other uterus - "Aleut" - works in the Far Eastern seas.

Whales do not stay in one place all year. They travel long distances in search of food. AT different time years of food more then closer to the poles, then closer to the equator. Knowing about the movements of whales, whaling ships hunt where there are a lot of whales at this time.

Sailing ships with simple harpoons exterminated many whales. The cannon steamer hastened the extermination. The industrialists of the capitalist countries rapaciously exterminate the whales. Some species of whales are living out their last days.

Once upon a time, whales were found in all seas. Now there are a lot of them only in the seas of the southern hemisphere. Up to 50,000 whales are killed every year, of which 40,000 are harvested in Antarctica. There are fewer and fewer whales in the northern seas.

Soviet whalers protect whales. The so-called gray whale is becoming rare. In summer it feeds in our Far Eastern seas. And here it is carefully guarded. Natural resources are not plundered in the Soviet country. Using these riches wisely, we not only preserve them, but also increase them. We protect giants of whales in our seas.

A whale is a marine animal of the chordate type, class mammals, order cetaceans (Cetacea). The whale got its modern name, consonant in many languages, from the Greek word kitoc, literally meaning "sea monster".

Anatomically, the whale has teeth, but in some species they are in an undeveloped state. In toothless baleen whales, teeth are replaced by bony plates called baleen and adapted for filtering food.

And only representatives of toothed whales grow identical cone-shaped teeth.

The spine of a whale can contain from 41 to 98 vertebrae, and due to the spongy structure of the skeleton, elastic intervertebral discs give the body of animals special maneuverability and plasticity.

The cervical interception is absent, and the head smoothly passes into the body, which tapers noticeably towards the tail. The pectoral fins of the whale are modified and turned into flippers that perform the function of steering, turning and braking. The caudal region of the body is flexible and muscular, has a slightly flattened shape and acts as a motor. At the end of the tail there are blades that have a horizontal arrangement.

Most species of whales have an unpaired dorsal fin that acts as a stabilizer when moving in the water column.

The skin of the whale is smooth, hairless, only on the muzzle of baleen whales grow single hairs, bristles, similar to the whiskers of land animals.

The color of the whale is monophonic, spotted or anti-shadow, when the top of the animal is dark and the bottom is light. In some species, body color changes with age.

Due to the absence of olfactory nerves, whales have almost completely lost their sense of smell. Taste buds are poorly developed, therefore, unlike other mammals, whales distinguish only salty taste. The sight of whales is poor, for the most part these animals are short-sighted, but they have conjunctival glands that are absent in other animals.

In terms of whale hearing, the complex anatomy of the inner ear allows whales to distinguish between sounds ranging from 150 Hz to the lowest ultrasonic frequencies. And due to the richly innervated skin of all whales, they have an excellent sense of touch.

Whales communicate with each other. The absence of vocal cords does not prevent whales from talking and making special sounds with the help of an echolocation apparatus. The concave bones of the skull, together with the fat layer, act as a sound lens and reflector, directing a beam of ultrasonic signals in the right direction.

Most whales are quite slow, but if necessary, the speed of the whale can be 20 - 40 km / h.

The life expectancy of small whales is about 30 years, large whales live up to 50 years.

Where do whales live?

Whales live in all oceans. Most species of whales are herd animals and prefer to live in groups of several tens and even thousands of individuals. Some species are subject to constant seasonal migrations: in winter, whales swim to warm waters, where they give birth, and in summer they fatten in temperate and high latitudes.

What does a whale eat?

Most whales eat a certain type of food:

• planktophages eat only plankton;
• teutophages prefer to eat cephalopods;
• ichthyophages eat only live fish;
• saprophages (detritivores) consume decomposed organic matter.

And only one animal from the order of cetaceans, the killer whale, feeds not only on fish, but also on pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, penguins), as well as other whales, dolphins and their cubs.

A killer whale swims after a penguin

Types of whales with photos and names.

The modern classification divides the order of cetaceans into 2 main suborders:

• toothless or mustachioed whales (Mysticeti);
• toothed whales (Odontoceti), which include dolphins, killer whales, sperm whales and porpoises.

The cetacean order forms 38 genera, which combine over 80 known species. Among this diversity, several varieties can be distinguished:

• , he is hunchback or long-armed minke whale(Megaptera novaeangliae)

got its name from the convex fin on the back, resembling a hump. The body length of the whale reaches 14.5 meters, in some specimens - 18 meters. The average weight of a humpback whale is 30 tons. The humpback whale differs from other representatives of the family of minke whales by a shortened body, a variety of colors and several rows of warty leathery protrusions on the top of the head. Humpback whales live throughout the world's oceans, except for the Arctic and Antarctic. Representatives of the North Atlantic population feed exclusively on fish: capelin, saffron cod, pollock, sardines, herring, haddock. The rest of the whales eat small crustaceans, various mollusks and small schooling fish.

• Gray whale (California whale) (Eschrichtius robustus, Eschrichtius gibbosus)

the only whale of its kind that practices eating food from the bottom of the ocean: the animal plows the mud with a special keel-shaped outgrowth located under the lower jaw. The basis of the food of the gray whale is made up of many organisms that live on the bottom: annelids, snails, bivalves and other mollusks, amphipods, egg capsules and sea sponges, as well as small fish species. Gray whales at a mature age have a body length of up to 12-15 m, the average weight of a whale varies from 15 to 35 tons, and females are larger than males. The body is brown-gray or dark brown, reminiscent of rocky shores. This species of whale lives in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Chukchi and Bering Seas, in winter it migrates to the Gulf of California and to the southern coast of Japan. Gray whales are record holders among animals for the duration of migrations - the distance covered by animals can reach 12 thousand km.

• bowhead whale (polar whale) (Balaena mysticetus)

long-liver among mammals. The average age of the polar whale is 40 years, but the known scientifically based fact of longevity is 211 years. This is a unique species of baleen whale that spends its entire life in the cold waters of the Northern Hemisphere, often making its way like an icebreaker. The fountain of the whale rises up to 6 m in height. The body length of mature females reaches 20-22 meters, males - 18 meters. The weight of a whale is from 75 to 150 tons. The skin color of the animal is usually gray or dark blue. The belly and neck are lighter in color. An adult bowhead whale consumes almost 2 tons of different food every day, consisting of plankton (crustaceans and pteropods).

• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

the largest representative of toothed whales, and females are much smaller than males and have a body length of no more than 15 meters. The male whale grows up to 20 meters in length. The maximum weight of females reaches 20 tons, males - 50 tons. Sperm whales have such a characteristic appearance that they cannot be confused with other cetaceans. The giant head is over 35% of the length of the body, and when viewed from the side, the snout of the sperm whale looks like a slightly beveled rectangle. In the recess at the bottom of the head there is a mouth, seated with 20-26 pairs of cone-shaped teeth. The weight of 1 whale tooth reaches 1 kilogram. The wrinkled skin of the sperm whale often has a dark gray color with a blue tint, although there are dark brown and even black individuals. As a predator, the sperm whale preys on squid, cuttlefish, large fish (including some types of sharks), and also swallows everything in the ocean: empty bottles, rubber boots, toys, coils of wire. Sperm whales live throughout the oceans, but are more common in tropical waters than in cool ones. Most of the population is distributed off the coast of the Black Continent and the eastern coast of Asia.

• (Balaenoptera physalus)

the second largest animal on the planet. The length of an adult whale is 24-27 m, but due to its slender physique, the whale weighs only 40-70 tons. hallmark fin whales is an asymmetric color of the muzzle: the right part of the lower jaw is white, and the left is dark. The basis of the whale's diet is small crustaceans. Fin whales live in all oceans: in winter they inhabit the waters of moderately warm zones, and in the warm season they swim to the waters of the Arctic and Antarctic.

• Blue whale (blue whale, vomited)(Balaenoptera musculus)

not only the largest whale in the world, but also the largest animal on our planet. The length of the blue whale can reach 33 meters, and the weight of the blue whale reaches 150 tons. This animal has a relatively slender build and a narrow muzzle. The color of the body within the species is monotonous: most individuals are gray with a blue tint and gray spots scattered throughout the body, making the skin of the animal look like marble. The blue whale feeds mainly on plankton and inhabits the entire oceans.

• Pygmy whale (pygmy right whale, short-headed right whale)(caperea marginata)

the smallest species of the suborder of baleen whales. torso adult does not exceed 4-6 m in length, and the body weight of the whale barely reaches 3-3.5 tons. Skin color - gray with dark spots, sometimes black. It differs in an undulating way of movement unusual for whales, feeds on plankton. The pygmy whale is one of the rarest and least numerous species of whales, it lives mainly in the waters of southern Australia and New Zealand.

whale breeding

For the most part, whales are monogamous, and breed once every 2 years. Whales reach the ability to reproduce by 3-5 years, but physically mature only at the age of 12 years. The mating season is greatly extended in time, because the males are ready to mate for almost a whole year. Depending on the species, the pregnancy of a female whale lasts from 7 to 18 months. Non-migratory whales give birth in the summer, the rest swim to warm waters and give birth there.

Childbirth takes place in the water column, one cub is born, and it always goes tail first. The weight of a newborn whale is 2-3 tons, and its length is a quarter or even half the length of a female.

The baby whale can immediately move independently, but keeps close to the mother, in whom the maternal instinct prevails above others.

Whales feed their young underwater. Whale milk is extremely thick and high-calorie, with a fat content of up to 54%, and does not spread in water. The mother feeds the cub for an average of 4-7 months (sperm whales up to 13 months). The babies grow rapidly and, upon completion of breastfeeding, increase in size to half the original length. All this time, the males of most species of whales stay nearby and do not leave the family under any circumstances.

What is the difference between a whale and a sperm whale?

The sperm whale is a type of whale. It has its own specific features:

• The head of a sperm whale with a huge square forehead occupies from 1/4 to 1/3 of the body length. The head of other whales is relatively small: from 1/5 to 1/9 of the body length. The exception is some representatives of baleen whales, such as the bowhead whale, southern right whale, whose head and body sizes are in the same proportion as that of sperm whales.
• The nostrils of whales are shifted back and up. They can be paired (in baleen whales) or unpaired (one nostril) (in toothed whales). In the sperm whale, the nostrils are asymmetrical and shifted forward, while one of them performs a respiratory function, and with the help of the other it makes sounds.
• The sperm whale belongs to the suborder of toothed whales, and its jaws are armed with numerous cone-shaped teeth. Mammals of the suborder of baleen whales instead of teeth have horny plates that replace teeth and are called baleen.
• In sperm whales, a huge spermaceti organ is located in the head, filled with a fatty substance (spermaceti), which solidifies at low temperatures. It is assumed that this organ helps the animal to dive and rise to the surface. Unlike the sperm whale, other whales do not have such an organ.
• Another difference is the dorsal fin. In whales, it is solitary. In sperm whales, it has an unusual structure for other whales - a small crest, followed by several of the same, only smaller.
• The sperm whale is able to dive to a depth of 3000 m, which is much more compared to other whales. Under water, it is longer than not only other cetaceans, but also all living creatures on the planet that breathe atmospheric air.
• The sperm whale, like other toothed whales, feeds mainly on cephalopods, in particular squids and, in smaller quantities, fish, including deep-sea fish, grabbing them with their jaws. Baleen whales feed on plankton, small fish and other small vertebrates, filtering them out of the water through their baleen.
• The pregnancy of sperm whales is longer than that of other cetaceans, and lasts 16-18 months.
• All whales feed their young underwater. After a certain interval of time, babies capture the mother's nipple for a few seconds. At the same time, the cubs of all whales hold it between the tongue and the top of the sky, and the baby sperm whale holds it in the corner of the mouth.
• Sperm whales emit echolocation signals: clicks, crackles and creaks. Baleen whales, in which echolocation is not developed or is in its infancy, can make various sounds. For example, a growl, roar, moan, purr can be emitted by a bowhead whale; hunchback songs are similar to the sounds of wind instruments; the moans of the fin whale resemble the sound of a flute from high to low tones. Many representatives of toothed whales make the same sounds as sperm whales, but at the same time they are able to whistle, roar, and killer whales also scream like March cats.
• Whales swim faster than sperm whales, reaching speeds of over 50 km/h. The maximum speed of sperm whales rarely exceeds 37 km/h, and generally does not exceed 10 km/h.

What is the difference between a killer whale and a whale?

The killer whale, like whales, belongs to the cetacean order, but it has certain features:

• Killer whales differ from other whales in their high dorsal fin, reaching 1m in height. Moreover, males have a higher fin than females.
• In killer whales, unlike other whales, the head shortens with age, and the tail section lengthens, that is, the tail grows faster than the head.
• Whales feed on plankton, small vertebrates, fish, and cephalopods. Killer whales, which at a young age also eat fish and shellfish, later become real predators attacking warm-blooded animals. They eat sea lions, sea lions, elephant seals, porpoises, seals, walruses and even their fellow cetaceans. They swallow small prey whole, and large prey in large pieces.
• Whales are rather melancholy and slow animals. These sometimes clumsy sea giants are ready to filter water for hours, extracting krill from it. The killer whale is a swift and very active predator, deftly hunting prey swimming nearby.
• Killer whales are characterized by a strong attachment to each other and to the cubs, it is difficult to separate their flock. Many other whales are solitary or gather in small groups of 3-4 individuals.

• For a long time, whales have been of great economic importance to humans. Bones and fat from the subcutaneous layers of the whale were boiled to obtain fat, which was used in the production of margarine, glycerin and was used in the soap industry.
• Spermaceti, extracted from the head of sperm whales, is part of cosmetics, including decorative lipstick and various creams. Before the invention of polymers, whalebone was used to make corsets for women's dresses and springs for upholstered furniture.
• From the secret of the pancreas of whales, insulin and other drugs are produced. Ambergris, found in the intestines of the sperm whale, is widely used in perfumery as a flavor stabilizer.
• Uncontrolled whaling has inevitably led to the near extinction of many whale populations. To date, most of the species are listed in the International Red Book, and commercial whaling is prohibited by the laws of most civilized countries.