Blue Whale
Balaenoptera musculus · Animal
The blue whale is the largest animal known to have ever lived. Despite its size it feeds almost entirely on tiny krill, filtering enormous volumes of seawater through baleen plates.
Key facts
- Scientific name
- Balaenoptera musculus
- Kind
- Animal
- Conservation status
- Endangered (IUCN EN)
- Habitat
- Open ocean
- Range
- All oceans except the Arctic
- Size
- Up to 30 m long
- Weight
- Up to 180 t
- Lifespan
- 70–90 years
- Diet
- Krill (filter feeder)
- Activity
- Migratory · solitary or in pairs
- Population
- ≈ 5,000–15,000 mature adults (IUCN, 2018)
Diet
Gulps huge mouthfuls of water and krill, then pushes the water out through baleen plates. During the feeding season an adult can eat around 3–4 tonnes of krill a day.
Behavior
Blue whales migrate between cold, krill-rich feeding grounds and warmer waters where calves are born. Their low-frequency calls are among the loudest sounds made by any animal and can travel hundreds of kilometres underwater.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Balaenopteridae
- Genus
- Balaenoptera
- Species
- B. musculus
Conservation
Commercial whaling in the 20th century killed hundreds of thousands of blue whales. Hunting has been banned since 1966 and some populations are slowly recovering.
Main threats
- Ship strikes
- Entanglement in fishing gear
- Ocean noise
- Climate effects on krill