0
Whales
The largest animals on earth, whales include a number of diverse species of aquatic mammals. Living their entire lives in the water, they have been a source of wonder to mankind.
3,355 Questions
What is the mating ritual of the whale?
Male bottlenose dolphins will join together and approach a group of females, attempting to sway a female out of her group. If the female is unimpressed, she will try to escape. The males will then surround her, going as far as slapping her with their fins and biting her to keep the female from escaping.
Male Amazon River Dolphins have a gentler approach. They will take a stick, rock, or lump of water weed in their mouth and swim to the surface, rising out of the water and twisting on their axis. One male was even reported displaying a turtle. Observations found that the biggest males carry the heaviest objects, thus fathering the most offspring.
What are drifting marine animals known as?
Drifting animals are called Zooplanktons. These include protozoa and tiny crustaceans found in Littoral (Near-shore) zone in aquatic ecosystem. These are source of food for other aquatic animals.
What word describes a group of whales?
Collective nouns for whales in addition to a pod are:
- gam of whales
- school of whales.
- shoal of whales.
Are whales endangered and why?
Well the Killer Whale is endangered because of humans. People kill them for their clear oil, boat propellers hurt them too, and they are endangered because of oil spills.
Humpback Whales are endangered. People have hunted them for thousands of years. They hunted them for their blubber for oil lamps.
Sea Otters are endangered. People killed the otters for fun and because they ate too many fish. Also they are dying because people are taking away their homes. People captured them, moved them, and then left them to die.
There are a few others, seed related link.
What time of year are the whales in Maui waters?
The best months to watch for whales in Maui are during whale season. Whale season is from December to early May.
One of the best ways to whale watch is to take a whale watching tour out on the open ocean. If you go on a whale watch during whale season, many tour operators will guarantee whale sightings (or you get to go again for free!)
An alternative for those on a tight budget is to simply whale watch from land for free.
yes they can jump, however they are strictly limited to jumping only in the northern hemisphere on full moon nights in leap years. caution: if viewed by the naked eye blindness will occur. the highest recorded leap by a whale was 71 feet 3 inches by an orca whale on may 22, 1952 off the midway islands in the north pacific.
When did whales exist on land?
54-60 Million Years ago between the Eocene and Myocene a relative of today's Hippopotamus took permanently to water and evolved into the Whale. Recent DNA analysis of both animals has caused a rethink on the origins of cetaceans. Today Hippo's are losing their body hair and spending virtually all their life in water. Their eyes have migrated to the top of their head and they appear to be slowly evolving into a marine mammal as did the whale did all those years ago.
What type of whale was Free Willy?
Movie Star Killer Whale Keiko dies of Pneumonia.
A truly sad story here, but not the one you might think it is. Keiko the Killer Whale, star of the movie "Free Willy" has died.
Keiko was originally on display in a facility down in Mexico little better than a swimming pool. He was rented out for the production of Free Willy, where it became known what the state of his life was (not fun). That caught the public's attention, and there was a groundswell of support to "free Willy". Eventually, an aquarium in Oregon (the Newport Bay Aquarium in Newport, on the coast -- we've been there and it's a wonderful place to visit) arranged to take Keiko from Mexico, and through donations, built a wonderful new facility for him to the tune of about $2 million US.
But that wasn't good enough for some folks. While most experts in orcas felt that keiko was too habituated to humans to be re-introduced into the wild, the "Free Willy" concept continued and gathered steam. Eventually public pressure forced the issue, and it was agreed to try to rehabilitate keiko and reintroduce him into the wild.
This process started in 1998, and continued until 2002 when he was finally released from his special pen offshore of Iceland. Keiko immediately swam to Norway and emigrated to a small fishing village, where he more or less just hung out near the dock and begged for food.
All in all, about $20 million was spent on keiko's reintroduction to the wild, which was a total failure, a failure most experts knew was likely. It might seem worth trying anyway, as a heroic gesture, except...
Except if keiko had been left in his new home in Newport, he'd probably be alive, healthy and happy today -- happier than he was in Iceland or Norway, because Keiko had spent most of his life in captivity, and was simply too habituated to "go wild" again.
And that $20 million? Spent on one animal that happened to catch the public's attention? Orcas are increasingly threatened worldwide -- pugest sound populations are down almost 20% since 1996. Recent studies indicate a drastic loss of primary foods (especially seals) have hurt the whales, which are spending more and more time chasing less and less nutritional foods (such as otters), and there is some evidence that killer whales are primarily responsible for the dramatic losses in the sea otter population in some areas that have mystified scientists.
On top of this, killer whales are high on the food chain, which means pollutants concentrate in them, especially mercury, and that seems to be causing fertility problems and other problems.
Much, however, is not known. While some of the money spent on keiko went to research useful with other whales, by anthropomorphizing Keiko, we did neither him or his species a favor -- because by spending that money on Keiko (which wasn't really about the whale, but was about absolving our societal guilt for capturing him in the first place), we took a pet (a large, wet pet, but still a pet) and stuck him back in an environment that was -- for him -- not natural and not pleasant. About as useful as sticking a cat in the middle of a forest: the cat's either going to starve or go feral and find civilization again to live off of. No amount of wishing makes them wild, or trains them to be wild.
And that is to me the sad subtext of the Keiko story: our oceans in general, and Orcas specifically, need help and there's a lot we don't know that we need to learn so we can protect the species and its environment. And that $20 million we spent trying to return Keiko to the wild could have been much better spent studying Orcas and looking for ways to help the species.
But we didn't do that. We were so busy "freeing Willy!" that we never stopped to ask whether Willy wanted to be free. it's clear he didn't. So we wasted money on a single animal that could have helped all of his relatives instead, mostly because it made us feel better, not because it was in Keiko's best interests.
And that's unfortunately typical of our culture. We get enthused in Grand Causes, as a certain pooh bear might say, and never stop to ask whether the cause really is the best thing to do. What was best for Keiko was for him to get out f that disaster in Mexico and allowed to finish his days in Newport. But instead, we had to "free" him, which he clearly didn't relish, and which ultimately, killed him.
But it was for his own good. And we sleep better at night knowing we Freed Willy, right?
Do sharks and whales eat elephant seals?
yes. sharks regularly eat seals, it is in their muscle memory diet. i do not believe that a shark would eat a whale, it might try a taste but out of curiosity, like how sharks attack humans, they are either confused are they are just curious, there are multiple reasons but those are the most assumed. killer whales eat Great white sharks so i would figure that a shark would be frightened by a whale.
Not just water, but cold water.
Water because they need it's support to move.
Cold because of their mass plus their insulation means that would overheat (to death) if out of water for very long.
Yes. The whale can kill the squid if it really wanted to. But most likely the squid would be gone before the whale could find it. Plus killer whales hate cold water. Squids literaly need cold water.
-- Orcas do not hate cold water, they primarily live in the North West Pacific Ocean, where it is quite cold. And squid do not need cold water, many of them live in tropical waters. Orcas have been known to eat common squid. The main reason a fight between these two would not happen is because giant squid live in the deep ocean, deeper than orcas typically dive. --
What 3 features do whales and other mammals share?
They are both vertebrates, they are both warm-blooded, and they both have a four-chambered heart.
Why do you think that sound is an important means of communication between whales?
Whales sounds travel through water more than four times as fast as sound travels through air, and those sounds can travel great distances. Whales use 'songs' that may last as long as thirty minutes to attract mates. Other shorter whale songs are used as feeding calls, to attract other whales to get ready for a hunt where they form a group to catch large schools of fish. Other whale communications consist of what sound to humans like moans, grunts, thumps, chirps, and whistles. Scientists are studying whale sounds to learn more about how these animals communicate with each other.
How long can whales wait until they blow out water in there spout?
Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are mammals that breath air. The problem they have is when they beach themselves on land; then without water to support their bodies, they collapse on their lungs and die, also from exposure to the elements.
Who are the people killing the blue whales?
People.
It used to be hunting. Now we're killing the whale's food (krill) with a combination of overfishing and warming the planet.
People catch about 200,000 tons of krill per year.
As if catching all the krill isn't bad enough, climate change is melting sea ice, which is where the krill's food lives. So, a warming ocean kills off marine algae, which means that krill numbers drop, which means that blue whale numbers drop.
What do crab and whales have in common?
because whales are very big and kill other animals and starfish dont kill people
Yes, the orca must come to the surface of the water to breathe. It is the largest member of the dolphin family, and, like all whales, dolphins and porpoises, it breathes air. A link can be found below for more information.
Why do people call whales back a saddle?
You can see this most easily on an Orca Whale, right behind the Dorsal fin (upright on the back) there is a grey patch that looks like a saddle, the only reason it got it's name is because of the shape of this grey area. The whole back is not the saddle just this one patch
What is the name for a female Blue whale and her baby?
A group of whales is called a pod no matter what kind they are.
Why don't whales drown when they sleep?
They don't drown because some whales go up to shore and sleep up there so then they don't drowned.
