whale

a kind of animal – mammal – aquatic (= living in water) – air breathing – warm blooded (= animal that has a constant body temperature whatever be the temperature of the surroundings or weather; ‘warm blooded’ is an old word, the scientific or modern word is ‘ heterothermic’ or ‘poikilothermic’) – female with memory glands with which it suckles its babies – large, streamlined body (with some hair in the young stage and almost without hair in the adult stage) with paddle-shaped fore-limbs (front legs) in place of fins (in some species very small, useless hind (back) legs are show) , a lobed fin on the back, flat lobed wedge-shaped tail fin, called ‘fluke’, thick layer of fat, called ‘blubber’, under the skin, large head with one or two nose holes, called ‘blow holes’ on the top of the head, neck attached to the body; size: varies widely – the smallest – dwarf sperm whale – 8-9 feet in length and 100-150 Kg. in weight – the largest – blue whale –100 feet in length and 150 tons; feeds on plankton, zooplankton (= very small plant and animal matter in water), other sea animals, such as squid, and fish; lives for (small species) 15-25 years (large species) 40-90 years (some individuals have lived for 135-200 years; the record holder with the highest lifespan could be the ‘bowhead’ whale that has lived for 210 years); about 76 species, found in most ocean waters of the world

male ~~ bull

female ~~ cow

baby ~~ calf

group ~~ pod, gam, herd, grind, shoal, school, mob

voice (call) ~~ clicks, echolocation pulse & clarinet-like long notes called ‘whale song’

[Though they have ‘whale’ in their names, the killer whale (orca)’ and the ‘pilot whale’ are not whales; they are large dolphins!]

There are two broad types of whale: the ‘baleen whale’ and the ‘toothed whale’.

1.

Baleen whales:

bow-head (baleen) whale

The ‘baleen whales’, have no teeth at all.  As the name suggests, they have a sieve-like (comb-like) organ growing down from the upper jaw in place of teeth, which filters the plankton and the zoo-plankton found in the water.  When the water passes through the ‘baleen’, the small plant and animal matter is caught in the baleen, like lice caught in the teeth of a hair comb.  The whale then dislodges these food particles with its tongue and pushes them into the throat! There are 66 species of baleen whales.

whale baleen

The common ‘baleen’ whales are: bowhead whale, right whale, fin whale, blue whale, minke whale, humpback whale, grey whale, sei whale, and a recent discovery ‘Balaenoptera omurai’ without a common name yet, but probable name could be ‘Omura’s whale’.

2.

Toothed whale:

sperm whale (toothed whale)

The ‘toothed whales’, as the name suggests, have teeth.  The feed on fish and other marine animals.  There are 10 species of toothed whales.

whale teeth

The common ‘toothed’ whales are: sperm whale, beaked whale, bottlenose whale, narwhal and beluga.

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