Whales!

           As many of you know, whales are seriously endangered, especially some of the larger species, such as the blue whale or the humpback whale. Whales have been hunted almost to extinction for their blubber and natural oils. That was a while ago, but the impact of that is still taking its toll today, plus the effect of water pollution.

           Since whales are marine mammals, and the deep oceans can get to freezing temperatures, they have a thick layer of fat called blubber. This blubber insulates their body and keeps them warm. Some whales are also one of the many marine animals that live in groups. These whale "families" are called pods. Whales are also migrating animals. This means that the travel from place to place, sometimes because of the changing seasons, sometimes because of reproduction and births. One of such is the humpback whale. Many humpbacks migrate between Hawaii and southeast Alaska. In summer, they stay by Alaska, but when the cold winter chills take to the water, they migrate to Hawaii, where it's much warmer, and has more food. These migrations take very long times, as the distances are very great.

                  Whales are mammals, just like dolphins, dogs, cats, cows, and us! This means that they breathe air, not water, so they could drown if they don't get air in time. They are very much like dolphins. In fact, whales and dolphins are in the same family-- Cetacea. Like the dolphin, whales have blowholes to breathe through. They also spout water through these holes when they surface for air. Whales (and dolphins) have the ability to close these blowholes when they submerge so that no water gets into their system, or they may drown and die (pretty much the same things). Being mammals, they are warm-blooded and give birth to live babies, plus they suckle their young with milk.

           There are pretty much two groups of whales: baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales don't have real (regular) teeth. Instead, they have a layer of baleen (hence the name) attached to the top and bottom roofs of their mouths. These whales gulp a huge mouthful of fish and seawater, then close their baleen "teeth" and strain out the seawater, leaving the fish trapped in their mouths. An example of these whales would be the blue whale. Baleen whales generally eat a lot of zooplankton, particularly krill. Some even eat tiny fish, like herring. Toothed whales have regular (only bigger and sharper) teeth, like other predatory mammals, since they eat much larger prey, like big fish and even seals. An example of this sort of whale would be the orca, or killer whale.

Click on each picture below to hear an orca call. All whales communicate (at least a little) with sound. Some whales, like the humpback, "sing". They make sounds of different pitch and tone, strung together like a song with rising and falling tones, so they are called whale songs. These songs can be heard for miles around. They also have many different whale songs that mean different things. But, for the whales that don't sing, they still communicate with different tones and pitches of sounds that are recognizable.