๐ฆ Animal world ๐ฌ Sea animals
Whale
๐ In short
Did you know the biggest animal that has ever lived on Earth lives in the ocean today? It's the blue whale! Whales live in the sea and swim like fish, but they're not fish: they're mammals like us. They breathe air and feed their babies milk.
๐คฉ Did you know?
- A blue whale can be 30 meters long, about the length of three buses!
- A blue whale's heart weighs about 180 kilograms.
- The blue whale's call is one of the loudest sounds in the animal world.
- A newborn blue whale is longer than a car!
๐ Find out more
๐ A breathing hole
A whale breathes through a hole on top of its head called a blowhole. When it comes up to the surface it blows out air hard, and we see a spout of spray shoot upwards!
๐ A giant that eats tiny things
Although the blue whale is a giant, it eats tiny shrimp-like animals called krill. It gulps lots of water, then sieves it through comb-like plates in its mouth.
๐ก Singers of the sea
Some whales, like the humpback, sing long, beautiful repeating songs that other whales can hear from very far away underwater.
๐ฏ Long journeys
Every year many whales travel thousands of kilometers, from cold waters full of food to warm waters where they give birth.
๐ธ More pictures
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 Is a whale a fish?
2 What does a blue whale eat?
3 A blue whale can be ?? meters long, about the length of three buses!
4 Which picture shows โWhaleโ?
๐ฆ Discover more
๐ท Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons
- Michaรซl CATANZARITI ยท CC BY-SA 3.0
- Evadb; Edit by jjron. ยท Public domain
- Michaรซl CATANZARITI ยท Public domain
- The original uploader was NightThree at English Wikipedia. ยท CC BY 2.0
