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- The largest animals to have ever lived on Earth, blue whales can grow to over 30m long and weigh more than 130,000kg – that’s longer than three buses and heavier than three lorries!
- Pretty much everything about the blue whale is massive. It’s tongue weighs as much as an elephant, its heart is the size of a car and its blood vessels are so wide you could swim through them!
- These blue-grey giants have a long, stream-lined body, a wide head, huge flippers, a powerful tail and a small dorsal fin. Some individuals have a yellowy-coloured underside, giving rise to the nickname ‘sulphur bottom’ whales.
- Blue whales can be found in all of our planet’s oceans, except the Arctic, usually swimming alone or in groups of two to four. But in areas where there’s lots of food available, as many as 60 whales may come together.
- What Is The Blue Whale?
- Diet of Krill
- Coloring and Appearance
- Vocalization and Behavior
- Blue Whale Calves
- Longevity
- Conservation
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Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.
Blue whales reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tons of krill a day. Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material, called baleen, attached to ...
Blue whales look true blue underwater, but on the surface their coloring is more a mottled blue-gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish huefrom the millions of microorganisms that take up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that ends in wide, triangular flukes.
Blue whales live in all the world's oceans, except the Arctic, occasionally swimming in small groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives. These graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour, but accelerate to more ...
Calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons and stretching to 25 feet. It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds every day for its first year.
Blue whales are among Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a close estimate of the animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was determined to be around 110 years old. Average lifespan is estimated at around 80 to 90 years.
Aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the brink of extinction. Between 1900 and the mid-1960s, some 360,000 blue whales were slaughtered. They finally came under protection with the 1966 International Whaling Commission, but they've managed only a minor recovery since then. Blue whales have few predators but are...
Learn about the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth, its diet, vocalization, behavior, and lifespan. Find out how blue whales were hunted to the brink of extinction and how they are recovering today.
- 4 min
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 tonnes (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known ever to have existed.
Learn about the largest animal that ever lived, its habitat, diet, lifespan, predators, conservation status and more. Discover 23 astonishing facts about the blue whale, such as its tongue size, its communication skills and its bonding behavior.
- 80-110 Years
- 80-108 ft (24-30 m)
- Virtually all oceans.
Jun 10, 2024 · Learn about the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived, a baleen whale that feeds on krill and lives in all oceans. Find out its size, colour, distribution, behavior, reproduction, and conservation status.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn about the largest animal on Earth, its habitat, diet, behavior and population status. Find out how WWF is working to protect blue whales from whaling, climate change, bycatch and other threats.
Learn about the blue whale, the largest mammal in the world, and its unique features, behavior, and threats. Find out how scientists use flukes, maps, and photos to study and protect these endangered animals.
