Archive for November, 2011

Top Facts About Whales and Whale Watching

If you find whales to be fascinating and the idea of a holiday involving whale watching appealing, here are a few facts about whales and whale watching holidays that you may find useful.

• Whales are typically divided into two categories – baleen or toothed. Baleen whales are typically larger and consume their food through a filtering system. By contrast, toothed whales chew their food before swallowing it.

  • In spite of some misconceptions the contrary, some male whales can be aggressive. These are typically toothed whales that may fight each other over females, and they have been known to attack small boats – although this is very rare and the reasons are not well understood. (And not something you need to worry about on whale watching tours.)
  • The blue whale is not only the largest species of whale but it is also regarded as the largest animal on earth.
  • Whales are air-breathing mammals that give birth to live young. Scientists believe that they are relatively closely related to the hippopotamus and that the species may have started to diverge around 50 million years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Balaenoptera Musculus – The Largest Mammal on Earth

Balaenoptera musculus is actually a type of blue whale where it comes from the family called Balaenopteridae and the type called Balaenoptera. The word ‘musculus’ indicates its species. This is a mammal that lives in the oceans. The average weight for this mammal is around 180 metric tons and the length is about 33 meters. Based on these figures, it is also known as the largest mammal in the world.

Blue whale is actually in the species of Balaenoptera which is known as humpback grayish-blue whale. The bottom part of their flippers is usually white or light grey color. Balaenoptera musculus is unique with a slim and long body. The color of this mammal is not totally blue as it has some grey color spot as well. This whale has paired blowholes with sharp snout. During feeding, the throat channels allow their throat to expand significantly and suck in tons of small fishes and swallow through their broad and short baleen plates.

There are three major subspecies of different locations. From the North Pacific and North Atlantic, we have B. m. musculus and from the the Southern Ocean, we have B. m. intermedia. B. m. brevicauda can be found in the South Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. Blue whale from Indian Ocean is called Balaenoptera musculus indica. This type of whale is plentiful in most of the oceans and the number is decreasing when people start to wildly hunt for this blue whale. In year 1966, International community had decided to protect this species and thus no hunting was allowed since then. Read the rest of this entry »

Killer Whale Facts

Killer Whales are beautiful creatures and so its no wonder that most want to know more about these amazing aquatic mammals. We’ve probably all visited a sea world centre and watched a killer whale perform tricks. They are brilliant at it. But where can you find them in the wild and what else do we know about them?

Firstly before we go on….They are perhaps misunderstood given their name – “Killer Whale” Due to their size, they are at the top of the food chain in the ocean, meaning they survive by eating dolphins, seals and even large whales. They do not generally eat humans, which their title perhaps suggests.

Here are some fast killer whale facts:

  • In the Wild they live to be about 50 years old but can live up to the age of 80 or even 90
  • Some species of Killer Whales are becoming extinct and are now an endangered species. All our classed as Endangered off the waters of Australia
  • It is estimated that there are approx 50,000 killer whales left in the world
  • It is hard to tell the difference between a male and female killer whale. But there is a slight difference in the black and white pattern on their back. Also the Male has a straighter and bigger dorsal fin.
  • They like to eat sea lions and even whales
  • They travel in pods – and there can be as many as 40 at a time over 4 generations.
  • They are good swimmers, averaging 35m per hour but this can increase up to 50m per hour Read the rest of this entry »