
Blue whale predators how to#
Here’s how to ensure that your trip does. New born whales are helped to the surface of the water by their mothers and are often encouraged (nudged) by other females so that they can take their first breath of air. These tours are generally beneficial for whales, but they can also stress them out.

With each mouthful, the whale can hold up to 5,000 kg of water and plankton. There is what looks like a moustache of long bristles on the end of each plate to help it hold the minute prey. The Blue Whales ability is used to knock predators and tail-biters away, similar to that of the Donkeys. The whale’s mouth has a fascinating row of plates fringed with bristles to help it filter its main source of food – plankton from the water. When it comes to eating food, the blue whale can consume as many as 40 million krill per day, which ends up weighing close to 8,000 pounds of food daily Note: Instead of krill, the baby blue whale consumes milk during its first 6 18 months of birth and can drink as much as 150 gallons of milk per day during its first year.Learning about whale sharks is an important part of protecting them. The longest confirmed specimen was 33. Average head-body length in adult males is 25 m in females it is 27 m. They are considered an apex predator, eating at the top of the food web. Blue whales are the largest animals ever to exist on earth. Scientists are also tagging and tracking the giant fish to learn more about their migration and breeding habits. Killer whales often use a coordinated hunting strategy and work as a team to catch prey. Blue whales are predators only if you think straining krill from the water counts as predation. Because of their size, power and speed, adult blue whales have virtually no natural ocean predators. These protected regions include Australia, India, the Philippines, and the United States.
Blue whale predators skin#
(Although their rubbery skin can be more than five inches thick, whale sharks can still be injured when fishing boats crash into them.) Their ocean habitat is also threatened by pollution.īut thanks in part to protected areas, where it’s against the law to harm whale sharks, scientists hope to see their numbers to rise. During the Cretaceous, 40-foot ambush predators such as Sarcosuchus and Deinosuchus munched on dinosaurs. Humans are the biggest threat to these endangered fish, which are illegally hunted and sold as food and can be injured by large shipping vessels.

Preserving populationsĪdult whale sharks have no known natural predators, though blue marlin and blue sharks prey on younger ones. Cartilage is strong, flexible, and less dense than bone, so it helps sharks swim fast and use less energy. Their skeletons are made of cartilage-the same stuff found in human ears and noses. Like all sharks, whale sharks don’t have bones.
