The biggest whale also happens to be the largest animal in the world. It is the blue, or sulfur-bottom, whale, which may be more than 30 meters long and weigh 125 tonnes.
It may be found in the waters but is most common in the Pacific Ocean. It belongs to the group of whales known as the whalebone whales" (the other is known as "the toothed whales"). So whalebone whales have no teeth.
It is rather strange to think that the largest animal in the world is able to get along without teeth! How do these whales manage? They have developed a structure in their mouths made up of hundreds of bony plates, known as a "baleen". It grows down from the palate (roof of the mouth) and forms a sort of sieve.
The whale feeds by swimming swiftly through a school of its prey-mostly small molluscs, crustaceans, and fish, with its mouth wide open. When it closes its mouth, the water is forced out between the plates, but the food is caught. The mouth of the whale is like a huge bucket. The head is about one-third the length of its body!
Of the toothed whales, the largest are the sperm whales. They may be 20 meters long and they have huge heads. The grampus, or killer whale (which is really a large dolphin), is the only one that eats other warm blooded animals. It is about 9 meters long and easily catches seals. Packs of killer whales even attack large whales,Because whales live in the water and have fish-shaped bodies, we tend to compare them with fish. But the skeleton, circulatory system, brain, and other organs are quite unlike those of fish.
It may be found in the waters but is most common in the Pacific Ocean. It belongs to the group of whales known as the whalebone whales" (the other is known as "the toothed whales"). So whalebone whales have no teeth.
It is rather strange to think that the largest animal in the world is able to get along without teeth! How do these whales manage? They have developed a structure in their mouths made up of hundreds of bony plates, known as a "baleen". It grows down from the palate (roof of the mouth) and forms a sort of sieve.
The whale feeds by swimming swiftly through a school of its prey-mostly small molluscs, crustaceans, and fish, with its mouth wide open. When it closes its mouth, the water is forced out between the plates, but the food is caught. The mouth of the whale is like a huge bucket. The head is about one-third the length of its body!
Of the toothed whales, the largest are the sperm whales. They may be 20 meters long and they have huge heads. The grampus, or killer whale (which is really a large dolphin), is the only one that eats other warm blooded animals. It is about 9 meters long and easily catches seals. Packs of killer whales even attack large whales,Because whales live in the water and have fish-shaped bodies, we tend to compare them with fish. But the skeleton, circulatory system, brain, and other organs are quite unlike those of fish.
