Whale Facts

Length
The largest whale is the blue whale which can grow up to 94 ft long, and the smallest whale is the dwarf sperm whale which can be as small as 8.5 ft.

Weight
Whales vary from 500 lbs to 200 tons.

Food
The toothed whales like to eat larger prey; for example, orcas, otherwise known as killer whales because of their aggressive predator skills, like to feed on seals, penguins, and have even been known to attack other whales! Their only enemy is the human being. Baleen whales, on the other hand, are much tamer and are seasonal eaters. They swim through the ocean taking huge gulps of water into their mouths and filter everything out except plankton, krill, and small fish. With each gulp as many as 100 pounds of plankton can be caught, and blue whales can eat as much as 9,000 lbs of plankton in one day!

Life Span
A typical whale's lifespan is between 20 and 40 years though some may live to be 80.

Reproduction
Just like humans, whales give birth to live young, and mothers feed them with their milk. Also like humans, mother whales are pregnant for at least 9 months, but sometimes are pregnant for up to 18 months. Whales breed seasonally, but generally females only give birth to one calf every 1-3 years. Calves can swim just after they are born, but are cared for and protected by their mothers for at least one year.

Colors
Whales have a wide range in color, most are a blue-gray or gray, orcas are both black and white, belugas are a blue-white. There are a lot of color variations for the whale species.

Habitat
Whales live in oceans all over the world, and some migrate during colder seasons to find warmer feeding grounds.

Interesting Facts
The narwhal, an unusual toothed whale with a tooth piercing the upper lip, is believed to be the basis of the legendary unicorn.

The blue whale heart is the size of a small car, and a small child can stand in the major arteries leading from the heart.

Bowhead whales have a skull that is unusually thick. They use this to break through ice up to a foot thick in order to breathe, and spend their entire lives in arctic waters.

There are up to 10,000 gallons of water, equal to 256,000 glasses of water, in each feeding mouthful of an adult blue whale. Of course, they don't swallow that salt water; they use their baleen to strain it out.

A blue whale calf drinks about 130 gallons of milk per day, and gains up to 200 pounds per day during its nursing period.

A blue whale's eye is the size of a small teacup and their external ear is the size of the tip of a pencil.

Whales have to be conscious to breathe so they never go into a "deep sleep" like humans do. Rather, they let one half of their brain sleep at a time, and sleep about eight hours a day in this fashion.

Whales are known for their water acrobatics: breaching, or jumping high out of the water and then splashing down is often done just for play! Spyhopping, or popping its head out of the water, lobtailing, or sticking its tail out of the water and then slapping it down, and logging, or laying still at the surface of the water and floating like a log, are also characteristics whales use to communicate or play.

Sub Species
There are approximately 82 species, 20 of which are in North American waters.