August 8, 2019 • 8 mins
The blue whale is the largest known animal to ever grace the planet -- they may be twice as big as Megalodon was! Learn what science knows (and doesn't know) about blue whales in this episode of BrainStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain
Stuff Lauren vogelban here. Dating back to the days of
Wooly Mammoth's, humans have been obsessed with larger than life mammals,
and on the aquatic front, there's no bigger mammal than
the blue whale, which is the largest known animal to
ever grace the planet. No evidence has been found that
any other creature, even the largest of dinosaurs, surpassed the
(00:24):
blue whale in size. But wait, what about the megalodon,
the extinct shark species believed to be the largest fish
on the planet, and which you may recall from the
twenty eighteen horror movie The meg Well. Scientists guests that
even the biggest megalodon only reached a mere fifty eight
feet in length, though some argue it was up to
eighty two feet that's eighteen up to twenty five. By contrast,
(00:45):
the largest blue whales clock in at a little more
than a hundred feet or thirty meters long, and on
average are between seventy and ninety feet in length that's
twenty three to twenty seven meters, and their average weight
is approximately four hundred thousand pounds. That's a hundred and
eighty one thousand kilo mds or about two hundred tons. Females,
by the way, tend to be larger than males. The
largest blue whales live in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.
(01:08):
A blue whale's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant.
About a hundred people could fit in a blue whale's mouth.
A blue whale's heart is the size of a car,
its eyes the size of a basketball, and a small
child could swim through its arteries. The spray from a
blue whales blowhole is almost as tall as a three
story building that's about thirty ft or nine meters high.
(01:28):
These aptly named whales are blue gray in color, with
lighter gray patches that resemble splotches of paint, though they
also go by sulfur bottom whale due to their yellowish underbelly.
The blue whale is part of the Baileean whale family,
a group of toothless whales. It has instead of teeth,
plates of thick, coarse bristles in its mouth that it
uses to catch food. These are called black baileeen or
(01:49):
whale bone, and a single whale might have up to
eight hundred plates of the stuff in its great mouth.
Despite their massive size, blue whales rely on very tiny
two inch crustaceans own as krill as their staple meal.
But boy, do blue whales eat a lot of krill.
We spoke with Adam Ratner, a marine scientist with the
Marine Mammal Center. He said, given their size, blue whales
(02:12):
rely on vast quantities of food. Using plates of baleen
to filter small zooplankton from the water, they can consume
up to six tons or twenty thousand pounds that's over
five thousand kilograms of krill every day. In one gulp,
the blue whale can take in a hundred of its
body weight of water and krill. That's half a million calories.
Despite all the hubbub over their hefty size, not much
(02:34):
is known about blue whales behaviors and social structures. Ratner said,
we do tend to see blue whales traveling alone or
in small groups. In terms of behavior in the wild,
they don't tend to be very belligerent to each other
or other animals, but rather focused on feeding or migrating.
But again, behavior during breeding season could be very different,
and it's still in need of more research, but marine
(02:55):
biologists are studying one way that blue whales communicate with
each other. Sound. Ratner said, blue wheels produce one of
the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom, a low rumble
that can be heard hundreds of miles and even reported
to be thousands of miles away in the ocean. Researchers
are still unsure of the meaning of the vocalizations, though,
with best guesses being around finding mates or signaling opportunities
(03:17):
for mating or feeding. Along with studying whale behavior, scientists
use whale vocalizations to estimate whale population sizes. When these
whale calls are repeated in a sequence, they become known
as songs. They often repeat sequences vocalized by other blue
whales and add risks of their own, sort of like
whale memes or pop music. We also spoke with John
(03:38):
Callum Bocuus, a co founder of the nonprofit Cascadier Research
and a research biologist, to his conducted extensive studies on
the movement of blue whales. He explained, we've recently discovered
these very loud calls are produced only by males, indicating
it plays some role in mating or in competition with
other males. He notes that blue whales will also form
male female pairs during mating season, with the female leading
(04:00):
the pair. Competition for mats can also get a little intense, apparently.
Calumbodicus said there's also a competition involving high speed swimming
that occurs when more than one male is involved. Blue
whales can adjust the frequency of their songs by changing
the speed at which they blow air through their vocal cords.
Some researchers think that can do this intentionally, as they've
observed a gradual reduction in the frequency of blue whale
(04:22):
calls over the years, perhaps in reaction to noisy conditions
caused by objects like passing ships. A female blue whale
might give birth to a single baby calf every two
to three years. Each pregnancy lasts around eleven months. These
blue whale babies typically are whopping twenty five ft long
around eight meters and weighs seven thousand pounds or over
three thousand kilograms, which is heavier than a midsized suv.
(04:45):
Ratner said the milk from their mothers is so nutritious
that the calves gained two hundred pounds. That's a day
nursing a Blue whales average lifespan is eighty to ninety years. However,
their existence is increasingly under threat. Whales are currently listed
as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. As commercial whale
hunting took off in the early nineteen hundreds, blue whales
(05:07):
dropped from a pre willing population of two d and
fifty thousand to an estimated ten to twenty individuals alive presently.
Most of the decrease has been observed in the southern hemisphere,
where blue whales were previously the most numerous. We also
spoke with Jeff Jacobson, a marine biologist with a no
Year Center for Marine Science. He said, for some reason,
(05:27):
blue whales were not as impacted by whaling along the
California coast, and we have at least two thousand individuals here.
The population is still recovering. Around Antarctica, he said that
whales still remain highly vulnerable de collisions with ships, perhaps
because more krill sometimes appear in shipping lanes. Other challenges
facing the blue whale include entrapment and fishing gear, and
climate change affecting the mammal's food sources, but there are
(05:50):
some organizations working to make habitats safer for blue whales.
Ratner says that the Marine Mammal Center has addressed policies
about changing shipping lanes in San Francisco Bay in order
to reduce the light flihood of boats impacting migrating whales.
He also said that quote individuals around the world can
make a huge difference by examining their carbon footprint and
working within their communities, neighborhoods, schools, and work to reduce
(06:11):
their use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural
gas for energy and transportation, as well as producing their
use of single use plastics, one of the most commonly
found items of ocean trash. The compose a threat of
entanglement or ingestion for large whales. Like many marine mammals,
blue whales migrate as the seasons change, but you can
find them all over the globe in every ocean except
the Arctic, and both on coastal shelves and deeper waters.
(06:34):
Ratner explained that the whales typically migrate towards the North
and South poles, heading into cooler waters in the summer
to feast, than back toward the equator in the winter
to breed. The Calumbocutus adds that the blue whales migration
patterns are slightly more flexible than other baley whales, like
the gray whale. This is mainly because blue whales are
always in search of food to satisfy their large appetites,
so their movements are geared more toward finding food sources
(06:56):
than adhering to strict migratory patterns. Although there are a
number of distinct blue whale populations, they can broadly be
grouped to those that reside in the Northern hemisphere and
those that are found in the southern hemisphere. One of
the larger populations in the northern hemisphere is the estimated
two thousand some blue whales that feed off the coast
of California and migrate to Costa Rica and Mexico. It's
(07:17):
somewhat difficult to track them because satellite tagging that you
might use on other marine mammals like sea lions, could
cause skin infection in the whales. Scientists studying whales will
often use a more basic photo identification system to keep
track of specific blue whales around the world, because they
each have unique markings on their skin that can be
used to keep track of them and for some good news.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red
(07:40):
List of Threatened species, blue whale numbers have likely gone
up in recent decades, so things seem to be looking
up for the blue giant. Today's episode was written by
Terry yar Lagata and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff
is a production of iHeart Radio's House Stuff Works. For
more in this a months of other big topics, visit
(08:01):
our home planet, how stuff Works dot com and for
more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain
Stuff Lauren vogelban here. Dating back to the days of
Wooly Mammoth's, humans have been obsessed with larger than life mammals,
and on the aquatic front, there's no bigger mammal than
the blue whale, which is the largest known animal to
ever grace the planet. No evidence has been found that
any other creature, even the largest of dinosaurs, surpassed the
(00:24):
blue whale in size. But wait, what about the megalodon,
the extinct shark species believed to be the largest fish
on the planet, and which you may recall from the
twenty eighteen horror movie The meg Well. Scientists guests that
even the biggest megalodon only reached a mere fifty eight
feet in length, though some argue it was up to
eighty two feet that's eighteen up to twenty five. By contrast,
(00:45):
the largest blue whales clock in at a little more
than a hundred feet or thirty meters long, and on
average are between seventy and ninety feet in length that's
twenty three to twenty seven meters, and their average weight
is approximately four hundred thousand pounds. That's a hundred and
eighty one thousand kilo mds or about two hundred tons. Females,
by the way, tend to be larger than males. The
largest blue whales live in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.
(01:08):
A blue whale's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant.
About a hundred people could fit in a blue whale's mouth.
A blue whale's heart is the size of a car,
its eyes the size of a basketball, and a small
child could swim through its arteries. The spray from a
blue whales blowhole is almost as tall as a three
story building that's about thirty ft or nine meters high.
(01:28):
These aptly named whales are blue gray in color, with
lighter gray patches that resemble splotches of paint, though they
also go by sulfur bottom whale due to their yellowish underbelly.
The blue whale is part of the Baileean whale family,
a group of toothless whales. It has instead of teeth,
plates of thick, coarse bristles in its mouth that it
uses to catch food. These are called black baileeen or
(01:49):
whale bone, and a single whale might have up to
eight hundred plates of the stuff in its great mouth.
Despite their massive size, blue whales rely on very tiny
two inch crustaceans own as krill as their staple meal.
But boy, do blue whales eat a lot of krill.
We spoke with Adam Ratner, a marine scientist with the
Marine Mammal Center. He said, given their size, blue whales
(02:12):
rely on vast quantities of food. Using plates of baleen
to filter small zooplankton from the water, they can consume
up to six tons or twenty thousand pounds that's over
five thousand kilograms of krill every day. In one gulp,
the blue whale can take in a hundred of its
body weight of water and krill. That's half a million calories.
Despite all the hubbub over their hefty size, not much
(02:34):
is known about blue whales behaviors and social structures. Ratner said,
we do tend to see blue whales traveling alone or
in small groups. In terms of behavior in the wild,
they don't tend to be very belligerent to each other
or other animals, but rather focused on feeding or migrating.
But again, behavior during breeding season could be very different,
and it's still in need of more research, but marine
(02:55):
biologists are studying one way that blue whales communicate with
each other. Sound. Ratner said, blue wheels produce one of
the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom, a low rumble
that can be heard hundreds of miles and even reported
to be thousands of miles away in the ocean. Researchers
are still unsure of the meaning of the vocalizations, though,
with best guesses being around finding mates or signaling opportunities
(03:17):
for mating or feeding. Along with studying whale behavior, scientists
use whale vocalizations to estimate whale population sizes. When these
whale calls are repeated in a sequence, they become known
as songs. They often repeat sequences vocalized by other blue
whales and add risks of their own, sort of like
whale memes or pop music. We also spoke with John
(03:38):
Callum Bocuus, a co founder of the nonprofit Cascadier Research
and a research biologist, to his conducted extensive studies on
the movement of blue whales. He explained, we've recently discovered
these very loud calls are produced only by males, indicating
it plays some role in mating or in competition with
other males. He notes that blue whales will also form
male female pairs during mating season, with the female leading
(04:00):
the pair. Competition for mats can also get a little intense, apparently.
Calumbodicus said there's also a competition involving high speed swimming
that occurs when more than one male is involved. Blue
whales can adjust the frequency of their songs by changing
the speed at which they blow air through their vocal cords.
Some researchers think that can do this intentionally, as they've
observed a gradual reduction in the frequency of blue whale
(04:22):
calls over the years, perhaps in reaction to noisy conditions
caused by objects like passing ships. A female blue whale
might give birth to a single baby calf every two
to three years. Each pregnancy lasts around eleven months. These
blue whale babies typically are whopping twenty five ft long
around eight meters and weighs seven thousand pounds or over
three thousand kilograms, which is heavier than a midsized suv.
(04:45):
Ratner said the milk from their mothers is so nutritious
that the calves gained two hundred pounds. That's a day
nursing a Blue whales average lifespan is eighty to ninety years. However,
their existence is increasingly under threat. Whales are currently listed
as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. As commercial whale
hunting took off in the early nineteen hundreds, blue whales
(05:07):
dropped from a pre willing population of two d and
fifty thousand to an estimated ten to twenty individuals alive presently.
Most of the decrease has been observed in the southern hemisphere,
where blue whales were previously the most numerous. We also
spoke with Jeff Jacobson, a marine biologist with a no
Year Center for Marine Science. He said, for some reason,
(05:27):
blue whales were not as impacted by whaling along the
California coast, and we have at least two thousand individuals here.
The population is still recovering. Around Antarctica, he said that
whales still remain highly vulnerable de collisions with ships, perhaps
because more krill sometimes appear in shipping lanes. Other challenges
facing the blue whale include entrapment and fishing gear, and
climate change affecting the mammal's food sources, but there are
(05:50):
some organizations working to make habitats safer for blue whales.
Ratner says that the Marine Mammal Center has addressed policies
about changing shipping lanes in San Francisco Bay in order
to reduce the light flihood of boats impacting migrating whales.
He also said that quote individuals around the world can
make a huge difference by examining their carbon footprint and
working within their communities, neighborhoods, schools, and work to reduce
(06:11):
their use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural
gas for energy and transportation, as well as producing their
use of single use plastics, one of the most commonly
found items of ocean trash. The compose a threat of
entanglement or ingestion for large whales. Like many marine mammals,
blue whales migrate as the seasons change, but you can
find them all over the globe in every ocean except
the Arctic, and both on coastal shelves and deeper waters.
(06:34):
Ratner explained that the whales typically migrate towards the North
and South poles, heading into cooler waters in the summer
to feast, than back toward the equator in the winter
to breed. The Calumbocutus adds that the blue whales migration
patterns are slightly more flexible than other baley whales, like
the gray whale. This is mainly because blue whales are
always in search of food to satisfy their large appetites,
so their movements are geared more toward finding food sources
(06:56):
than adhering to strict migratory patterns. Although there are a
number of distinct blue whale populations, they can broadly be
grouped to those that reside in the Northern hemisphere and
those that are found in the southern hemisphere. One of
the larger populations in the northern hemisphere is the estimated
two thousand some blue whales that feed off the coast
of California and migrate to Costa Rica and Mexico. It's
(07:17):
somewhat difficult to track them because satellite tagging that you
might use on other marine mammals like sea lions, could
cause skin infection in the whales. Scientists studying whales will
often use a more basic photo identification system to keep
track of specific blue whales around the world, because they
each have unique markings on their skin that can be
used to keep track of them and for some good news.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red
(07:40):
List of Threatened species, blue whale numbers have likely gone
up in recent decades, so things seem to be looking
up for the blue giant. Today's episode was written by
Terry yar Lagata and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff
is a production of iHeart Radio's House Stuff Works. For
more in this a months of other big topics, visit
(08:01):
our home planet, how stuff Works dot com and for
more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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