Where whales live on the world map. Sizes of blue whale

This is a huge animal inspires respect with its gigantic sizes. On average, the weight of adult whale is 100 - 120 tons, i.e. So much as 40 African elephants weighed.

The biggest animal on Earth absorbs about 1 million calories per day. It is about 1 ton of krill, which constitutes the basic diet of blue whale. General blue whale typical planktonoy: It feeds in the upper thickness of the water with races, plunging under the water for 10-15 minutes. The wraps that it feeds is concentrated in special zones called fields of Nagula. In such places you can meet several whales at once, although they are usually not going to groups more than 3 individuals.

Blue whale is found in all open seas from the Arctic to Antarctic, but avoids coastal waters, as well as tropical latitudes, preferring cold water. The southern subspecies of blue whale is the most frost. It feeds on the fields located at the edges of the floating ice of the Antarctic. The northern subspecies of the blue whale does not reach the drifting articraft ice.

Leading a secluded lifestyle of whale whales has developed their own way of communication, with which they are associated with each other through huge distances up to 1600 km. These are famous whale songs whose volume reaches 188 decibels. The meaning of these songs is not fully understood, but scientists noticed that they "sing" whales during the reproduction period, so that there may be singing as it is associated with family functions of animals. Log in these songs before half an hour. At first, it was believed that only males sing, but there are information that for their kids singing and females of blue whales. The sound-reproducing system in animals is in front of the head and serves as a lens catching and reproducing sounds. Since whales are almost blind and there is no sense of smell, the sound is the only means of communication with other individuals, and the only way of contact with the outside world. Therefore, whales are constantly engaged in analyzing surrounding sounds.

Whales are very clearer animals. Their incredible understanding and friendly character made whales very popular and interesting for science animals. Scientists generally believe that the whale brain in its capabilities is most similar to human than the brain of any other animal.

Some features of the building of whales were very interested in physicians. So, whales do not have hemorrhages in the brain, due to the fact that their heart is a special shunt connecting two large artery, which provides reliable protection against the blockage of blood vessels, and as a result of heart attacks.

Also for scientists is of interest and whale eyes. Firstly, because in it the size allows you to consider what it is impossible to see in the eye of a person or another animal. Secondly, blue whale can dive under water on a greater depth, and the structure of his eyes is such that allows you to withstand huge pressure. Having learned this secret to a person will help the patients with glaucoma associated with impaired intraocular pressure.

In the slow time of direct threats of the population of blue whale no. Animal fishing is prohibited everywhere. Danger represent anthropogenic factors, violation of the usual habitat and pollution of the ocean.

Little children love to find out who in the world is the biggest and who is the strongest. Having learned about the most animals - elephants and whales - they often ask the question: "And if the whale with an elephant will fit, then who will win whom?"
Of course, the elephant with whale does not fight. First, both are quite a peaceful temper, if they pour them out. Secondly, whales do not crawl into land, and the elephants do not swim in the sea, at least so far and long to meet with whales. And thirdly, the dimensions of the elephant surprise only on land. In the sea, he will not seem too big to anyone: his weight is only 4 t!
Blue whale Reaches huge sizes. No animals are larger on Earth, even extinct dinosaurs were less - and in growth, and by weight. Adults about 20 m long, but there are also real giants: 33 m is a record among vertebrates! Such a bulkdin weighs up to 160 tons, count how many elephants need to be collected to "drag" in blue whale? 40 elephants! And people are much larger: 2300 people of medium height and weight. Almost the language of China weighs as an adult elephant. So, we bring to the sea and land giants to meet, Kit hardly drew attention to the "baby" with a trunk. After all, even the newborn blue kitenk weighs about 2 tons with a height of 7 m!
What does such a huge animal eat? After all, only to move (and not so slowly - up to 30 km / h.!), This giant has to spend a lot of strength. And to maintain the life of the whole huge body too. And in the sea water you need to constantly warm, because whale is not a fish, it has about the same body temperature as we have. Even in the tropics, the ocean is rarely warmer 25 ° C, and colder water is constantly "sucking" heat from any beast. Whales do not want to "get sick" in warm waters, they are often met in the cold seas, the very edge of the ice floats. So, they need even more, and this food must be satisfied. Algae in the ocean is not so much, and "graze" at the bottom is more convenient than those animals, which is less than growth. Who do these giants hunt?
Their mining is so small that the details of its structure without a strong magnifying glass and do not see. The greatest victims of increasing a little more cockroacan, and the smallest size of the mosquito. These are small wraps floating at the surface of the ocean, call them the Norwegian word "krill". Krill is one of the most important parts of the animal community floating by the will of ocean currents. All this community is called Plankton, many of his representatives can be seen only under a microscope. However, this particular floating trifle serves as food to almost all residents of the seas: or eating it, or those who eat this plankton, and then someone will eat and "hunter", and so on, while predators are so great and strong, that with Nobody will cope with them.
Blue Keith is not a predator, he does not catch up with anyone and does not bite, he does not have the teeth. Instead of them from the upper jaw, the plates of a meter length, similar to bone ridges, but "cloves" are small, they split into several hairs, so all together turn into a truly thick brush. As a mustache. Such a plate is called "whale musty", only it grows not outside, but inside, and these mustache in China have several hundred - on both sides of the grace. It turns out a thick, pretty small mesh, such as a sieve.
All whales communicate with each other with different sounds. The more whale, the louder and below, the "Bass," he has a voice. At the same time, as scientists found out, large whales are able to send signals to the conifers from them for dozens and even hundreds of kilometers. Does the voices of the sea giants so loud? It turns out no. It's all about the properties of sea water. At a certain depth, there are layers of water with different density by which the sound applies much further, they use cetacean as a kind of underwater telephone. In the Stade whales, someone constantly "duds at the phone": immersed on the desired depth and listens, if there are no messages from the neighbors. With the help of such a connection, for example, the news is rapidly transmitted about the abundance of food in any place, and whales begin to gather into such an area from a rather large area of \u200b\u200bthe ocean. It is suggested that the "next" message passes on, repeats it, as a result, the signal comes to completely remote herds.
Whale with the "sieve" in the mouth is called tasty whales, unlike those who have the real teeth - the teeth whales. All the saturated whales adapted to the acceleration of the ocean in search of edible little things. Such Usach sufficiently dial in the mouth of the water, to close the jaw and the language, like the piston of the pump, squeeze the water through the grid donated by nature. At the same time, the wraps settled on the mustache, it remains only to swallow!
Water in a whale mouth is placed a lot, hundreds of liters, and food in the stomach - and more. So that big blue whale fell apart, you need about 1 ton krill! And the wraps, as we remember, tiny ... whale saves one circumstance: Krill in the ocean keeps huge clusters. For hundreds of meters, the stripes are sometimes stretching for the flow - it is shone through the water of the body of a set of racks. In other places, these clusters are not so well noticeable, not so tight, but extensive spaces are occupied - tens of kilometers in the diameter! Such a living spot can be contacted not one whale, but a whole flock for several days. Finding the clusters of plankton, whales with an open mouth sail 1 - 2 km. At the same time, the language sends the flow of water to the mustache, and the rashes on the plates can linger so much that the mouth of the whale closes with difficulty. Several powerful sips - and the giant is fed!
However, some preferred whales prefer mining more, for example, small fish. The relative of the blue whale (in something inferior to him in size - the length of up to 27 m) Finval received the nickname to herd whale for the hunt for the shoals of this fish. However, it is also suitable for several, and mackerel to swim in the ocean with dense herds and was not too big: Finval's throat, like all the pretty whales, narrow. Another condition, without which the Cherdha Whale will not hunt: the jamb must hold on at the surface of the sea, if he is deeply hunting, it is possible and not start.
Frightened fish float pretty quickly, whale will have to spend on pursuit of forces more than they will add from such a smart breakfast. However, too attractive mining: In the Big Kosyka, you can even whale to bother the village to the limit, so Finval had to learn how to drive fish trap. Scientists even managed to remove this strange way from the helicopter and, by the way, to confirm the stories of former kitoboes, which the "land" residents often do not believe.

There are no hands from whales, to build a trap in the midst of the ocean - the matter is very difficult, therefore, Finval costs what he has. Air. The fact is that the fish are very wary of all unusual noise, and from a solid curtain of air bubbles in a panic. It is assumed that the raging bubbles remind them the foam from the surfing on the stones, and the fish are trying to escape from dangerous interference, while the waves threw them as shore or did not break about the rocks. Whatever it was, and Seldian whale such a habit only benefit.
Finding a cant, Finval dives under it, shallow, meters for 20 - 30. Then he begins to sail in a circle, gradually exhausted air. The circle narrows, the wall of bubbles twisted into the helix is \u200b\u200bformed. A part of the jacket that fell inside this wall, rushes into the center of the spiral, and there at this moment there is a huge mouth. The pop-up, Finval turns over to the side or on the back - too much I caught the fish, no mouth closes! It is necessary to "help": the jaw is heavy, and under its weight, the fish is tightly "packaged."

Blue Whale is the largest whale, the largest modern animal, and also probably the largest of all animals ever having lived on Earth. Its length reaches 33 meters, and the weight can significantly exceed 150 tons. Per day can eat up to 40 million small crustaceans.

Let's learn about it more ...

This is truly a huge animal, just a giant. Previously, His Area was from Antarctic to the Arctic. Whaling fishery almost destroyed blue whale. To date, it is listed in the International Red Book and the Red Book of Russia.

Once the blue whales killed all the oceans of the world; And by assumptions, only in Antarctic there were up to 250,000 of these creatures. However, in recent years, ruthless fishery has left less than 1% of the above figures. It is very difficult to determine the total number of tremendous animals, so the magnitude of the Antarctic population of blue whale on modern calculations ranges from several hundred to 11,000. But what would be the exact figure, it is in any case it seems dangerous low compared to the previously existing number.

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However, at the largest whale in the world not only huge body sizes. He is simply incredibly large internal organs. And only one language weighs so much that it is difficult to imagine: 4 thousand kilograms. Well, the heart of blue whale weighs about 700 kilograms. However, such impressive sizes for the ocean are not uncommon. Few people know that in the distant 1870, near the shores of North America, they found the biggest jellyfish. Medusa Cyania in length was more than 35 meters. To be clearer to present its value, you can compare it with a height of a 9-storey building.

When a little whale appears on the light (or more precisely to water), it already weighs about three tons. The length of the cub is comparable to a small tree - 6-7 meters. For a person, this is unimaginable sizes, to present a living being of such dimensions - difficult. Every year the whales only grow, and the little whale is pulling at high speed. At the same time, whales, according to various sources, can live until hundreds of years. However, despite the active growth and life expectancy, whales offspring are very slow. The female of the largest whale in the world reaches puberty only by ten years, and they give birth no more than once every two years. The fruit of mammals, in contrast to a person, carry about 12 months. Despite such circumstances, now mighty and noble mammals are destroyed mercilessly.

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And they do this at such a speed that the blue whales do not even have time to achieve their maternal age, that is, they die in childhood. The biggest whales now are not so abundant in the oceans, the population of them decreases in geometric progression. They are now on the verge of extinction. In Japan, for example, the fishery is so active that there are almost no whales there. Initially, the number of blue whales (it is before the start of intensive fishery) was estimated at 215 thousand individuals. But the modern livestock is quite difficult to calculate. And the reason is quite simple. For many decades, these mammals have not been studied very actively. The data for 1984, no more than 1900 whales live in the northern hemisphere, and in the southern same more - about 10 thousand goals. True, half of them - a dwarf subspecies. Now, according to some reports, there are no more than 2 thousand blue whales in the entire oceans. True, according to the calculations of other specialists, the numbers are more optimistic - at least 8 thousand individuals.

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However, the blue whales may die not only from human hands. A mammal can become a victim of their naval neighbors. You might think that adult whales, because of the gigantic size, there are no natural enemies. However, they can still get under the ease of the taway. The latter are knocked in flocks, tear blue whales and eat. And cases of attacks have already been registered. So, in 1979, a flock of 30 kales attacked young blue whale.

The tales rushed to their sacrifice, tearned pieces from her. Moreover, the attackers did not even disassemble where to bite - in the head, sides or back. And in 1990, two large whales were described, which were seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They had scars in the form of parallel strips, judging by them, traces of the teeth were left on the mammal.

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The color of blue whale, no matter how surprisingly, not blue, but, mostly gray, but with a blue tint. And the blue mammal was called because when you look at China through the water, but it seems to be blue, well, or blue. At the same time, fins and belly animal lighter than the rest of the body. Blue whales live in warm and cold waters. These are polar and tropical seas. The creation does not have teeth, but despite this, they feed on all the shallow maritime, for example, plankton or small fish. For food at the largest whale in the world there is a "whale whale". This is a device that resembles more brush or a huge sieve. It is able to pass through itself unnecessary items for nutrition, and besides, filtering water. Blue whale cannot eat a person, even if he wants very much. Therefore, a mammal is considered almost safe for humans. However, the inhabitant of the seas and oceans can easily flip the aqueous vessel of medium sizes, and not specifically, but simply randomly taped.

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There is a theory according to which whales went into the water from sushi. In proof of this - the features of the structure of the mammal skeleton, which does not really resemble fish. In the blue whale even there are brushes of fingers on fins. Moreover, Blue Whale does not postpone eggs and does not mold caviar, it produces already living organisms.

It is worth noting that whales have a very bad sense of smell and vision. Therefore, the largest whale in the world with his tribesmen communicates exclusively with the help of sounds. And that other mammals heard a cry, Whale has to invest in a message up to 20 hertz. And this is enough to transfer information to a huge distance - individuals are capable of hearing each other at a distance of up to 800 kilometers and even more. However, if Keith is rearranged, and shifts with a greater or less power, then the congregates will not hear it. Yes, and to understand someone whales are not capable. Most of these mammals are loners. Blue whale, as a rule, does not form herd. But sometimes in groups mammals are still going, but they are a few, only 2-3 heads. Only where there is a lot of food, you can find large clusters. However, even in such teams, the blue whales hold apart from the rug.

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The mammal is not such a maneuverable, like other major cetaceans. Whale movements are slow and clumsy. And they are active only during the day, this is evidenced by the fact that, for example, off the coast of California for the night of the individuals stop their movements. In general, the life of blue whales at night has yet been understood.

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Blue whales float 2 or 3 individuals, and sometimes alone. To the shores try not to swim. Several groups can be collected in places of cluster of plankton. Speed \u200b\u200bof blue whale 9-13 km / h. If the whale is frightened or runs away, it develops a speed of 25 km / h, and produces small fountains every 30 seconds.

Dives blue whales for 10-12 minutes, if the state is calm. After a long and deep immersion, it first shown on the surface of the breath, on the scalp. Little dorsal fin is visible when the front of the whale is already under water. After the whale fountain wounds back. Blue whale, the tail fin usually does not show, but strongly exposes the tail skell semicircle

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A blue whale is elongated, slim blue-gray, on the side of a flat, body with gray spots of different sizes and shapes. Spin and sides of light color, lighter total tone. And the head and jaw of a dark shade. The head has an angle shape of 45 °, wide above. Breast fins have a narrow, pointed and long form. The tail fin is wide, with pointed edges. In blue whale there are about 60 submandibular thorny folds.

Whales are extremely hardy. It may be in motion for many days without a single stop. But despite the strength they need permanent help of a person to survive.

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During the day, blue whale eats about 1 ton of krill (this is about 1 million calories) which are mainly supplied. Whale swallows the krill, together with thousands of liters of water, floating through its clusters, and then filters him pushing all this mass through the whale mustache. By the way, the language of blue whale weighs more elephant, and the thickness is more than 3 meters.

Pregnancy females blue Whale lasts 11 months. The offspring bring once every three years. In the water, one kitenk is born weighing up to 3 tons, up to 7 meters long. It feeds on fat (42%) and dense mother's milk about seven months. Chiten gets a portion of milk by reducing the muscles of the mother. In one day, the cub drinks over 600 liters of milk. The baby grows literally not by day, but by the hour. During the day he adds in weight to 100 kg, and the length of the pintage increases by 4 cm. Wow baby! Loving mom is always near, touchingly cares about his child. When the plates of the whale oss are fully developed, the hands of the kiden can help the food itself. This usually occurs in sevenway.

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Blue whales are almost completely blind and devoid of smells, so the only way to study the surrounding world, which they use is echolocation with sounds. Whales spend a huge amount of time to analyze sound signals from out, which contributes to the structure of the animal skull. In the front of the head in the animal, there is a sound-reproducing system that serves as a lens reproducing and catching sounds. The famous songs of blue whales, reaching 188 decibels, are most often associated with a period of reproduction. "Sing" usually males, but sometimes also females "sing" their children (listen to the songs of blue whales below). With the help of echolocation, individuals can communicate with each other, even being up to 1600 km from each other.

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Blue whale, which is also called a breakfast, scientists belong to tasty whales. The length of this marine animal reaches 33 meters, and the mass sometimes exceeds 150 tons. Currently, it is he who is considered the biggest earthly creation. Despite the huge sizes, they feed on raffs, plankton, a kille, small chasing. The giant is slowly sailing, gaining water into the mouth, the volume of which is about 23 cubic meters. Plates of whale oss form a remarkably working platter, the food is filtered through it, and excess water goes into the ocean. Those who want to learn more about how the whale livery, which is sometimes very diverse and looked like fiction, not so easy to find the necessary materials. The life of this giant is not yet sufficiently studied, and many data need verification.

In blue whale there are three subspecies - the north, southern and dwarf. Rarely, but still found Indian. Blue whale can be attributed to long-livers of our planet. On average, its life expectancy is about 80 to 90 years, sometimes there are references to the fact that individual specimens were able to live to 110 years.

Blue whales float in the ocean in small groups of 2 - 3 individuals. Many adult animals are loners. The sea giants are monoga, if you form a couple, then for life and will never be separated. The male always keeps near the female, tries not to sail away from her. In places with an abundance, China's feed is going in large quantities, but they also float very separately.

The movements of the animal are slowed, apparently because of the large sizes of the body, it is poorly maneuver and quite clumsy. To date, its activity in the night and evening was almost never studied, as they suggest, he leads a daily lifestyle and night moves little.

What is the basis of the ration of the giant is fully studied. This is a plankton, lats not exceeding in size 6 cm, from the Eufauzium detachment, which often form huge clusters - krill. Small fish, small squids swallowed when feeding randomly and do not have no value to power China. The marine animal eats plankton along with water, and then closes a huge mouth and squeezes the remaining water by the language through a whale mustache. Sometimes it is very difficult for him to "slam down", since, according to the measurements, the volume of such water in the 150-tonum is 32.6 cubic meters. Often, in blue whale lacks forces, he, with a complete mouth, is forced to roll over on his side or even on the back, then under the pressure of the sea puchin, the mouth slams. A fully filled marine giant stomach can accommodate up to one and a half tons of feed.

Interesting facts about whales contain the following information. About eight months a year, the blue whales are almost nothing eaten, they live on the reserves accumulated earlier - fat consumption. But in the summer they are actively feeding, absorb food almost without stopping and quickly restore the normal mass. For this, they sail into cold, but rich foods, the arctic waters of the southern hemisphere and are intensively fed there for 120 days. In warm tropical latitudes of whales, whales are usually empty.

Reproduction

Blue whale has the lowest index of natural growth among all the preached whales. At one time, ketologists (scientists studying by cetaceans) believed that the increase in their population could no longer compensate for the decline. In this regard, on February 19, 1986, the International Whale Commission introduced a full ban on the fishery of all species of these marine animals.

The cubs of the Bouvala give birth once every two years. But recently, because of their small numbers, married couples can form much less frequently. This leads to a decrease in the probability of the appearance of the selection. The duration of pregnancy is definitely not installed, on average, from 10 to 12 months. It is born most often one young, the length of the body of which exceeds 6 meters, and the mass is 2 - 3 tons. Sometimes there may be twins.

In blue whale females, at the beginning of pregnancy, there are several embryos, the maximum established number of embryos - 7. But in the later dates, most of them are absorbed, which is typical of many cetaceans. This is atavism, the legacy of the land ancestors who had a big offspring.

The pussy females are fed up with their young milk during the first 7 months. During this time, the "baby" has time to grow to 16 meters, which is comparable to the size of the adult Kashlota male. His mass can reach 23 tons. Daily, the little whale receives 90 liters of milk, and its weight, on average, increases by 44 kg. The fat content in mothers milk comes up to 50%, and the amount of protein and fat together constitute half of the total weight. Therefore, with such nutrition, the cubs in a two-year-old age reaches a mass of 50 tons and grows up to 20 meters in length. Physical maturity at the bouvals occurs after 15 years.

Briefly but interesting

In the old days about the mysterious marine animals, legends were made, they told stories about them. Many of them were rather fantastic. In those distant times, people believed that in the stomach of this vast creature you can live. In fact, the throat hole of the blue whale is comparable in size with a regular saucer. Theoretically, swallow a person can couch, the size of his throat may well afford it. For many people, the following facts may seem amazing or incredible:

Over the years, the number of blue whales gradually decreases. But many scientists believe that they will still be able to save from the full disappearance. Famous politicians, actors, public figures work on the possibility of preserving these who have already become rare marine. Thanks to the systematic study of these giants by Kethads, many people learned what he was, Blue Whale, interesting facts about which in the incredible data.

The blue whales are the greatest animals of our planet: adults have a length of 24 to 30 meters, while the females may exceed the sizes of males to 10 meters. In the XX century They were almost completely exterminated due to commercial fishery. And only after the universal ban on the destruction of whales, their number began to gradually increase.

The upper part of whale is a motley blue-gray, while the bottom is light gray or yellow-white. The yellowish shade of the abdominal part of the animal attach the growth of microscopic single-celled seaweed, called diatoms. These plants are common in cold marine waters.

It is officially believed that the most large part of the female, which was caught in the last century, a kitoboy, a length of 23 m 58 cm. Weigh these animals can up to 200 tons. For comparison: the weight of the African elephant is 7.5 tons. The heart of blue whale size with a car whose strikes can be heard for 3 kilometers. One of the species of the species is the blue pygmy whales. They are three meters shorter than their larger relatives.

These animals have one incomparable quality: blue whales are the loudest animals on Earth. The volume of their callsigns reaches 188 decibels, which significantly exceeds the sound of the reactive motor - 140 decibels. Sorodi's song The animal can hear at a distance exceeding 1.5 thousand km.

In addition to huge sizes, distinguishing signs of blue whales are a relatively small dorsal fin, the rounded part of the front of the skull and about 90 longitudinal furrows on the belly reaching the Pup.

Features of communication

The blue whales traveling alone, sometimes in groups of 2-3 individuals, sometimes in groups of 2-3 individuals. Large flocks that can include 60 animals are fixed in places of food clusters.

But there is one "but". Blue Whale is the strongest voice from all animals, the low frequencies of which are capable of spreading in a deep-sea environment for many hundreds and even thousands of kilometers. Therefore, the fact that people may seem like "single" swimming, in reality is not. Thanks to the ability to negotiate, single floating whale is often in close contact and communication with relatives.

Food

Whales feed on, plunging every 10-20 minutes to a depth of about 100 meters. The stomach can at times to accommodate about one ton of krill. His kille needs make up about 4 tons daily during summer feeding.

In the mouth there is a so-called "whale mustache" of black. These are horny plates hanging from the upper heaven, 300-400 pcs. from each side. The length of the plates ranges from 50 cm in front to 100 cm at the back. In order to eat, the animals spread the "whale musty" in the throat and absorb water with an armful, sieving it through the horny plates. After that, water is produced through a whale mustache, and the Krill remaining in his mouth is swallowed.

Life cycle

The female gives rise usually one pile of every two or three years. Currently, such a birth rate exceeds the speed of the destruction of animals during the hunt, which continues until now.

During the birth of potholes is the largest newborn animal on Earth: it has 8 meters long and weighs about 4 tons. At the same time, the pregnancy of the female lasts a year, and usually one kid is born. Young grows at a speed of 90 kg per day. Childhood ends at 7-8 months, after the animal reaches 15 m length and is learning to swim on their own. The period of maturity animals reaches 5 - 10 years.

The growth rate of blue whale also affects imagination and is the highest in the animal world. Only for the year and a half the size of the fabrics increase in several billion times.

Like other cetaceans, blue whales do not have teeth. Therefore, scientists are difficult to determine the age of the animal. It is believed that the average duration of their lives reaches 50 years, individual individuals are capable of living to ninety, and the oldest is considered an animal, the dead aged 110 years.

Extermination of whales

Before the start of active whaling fishery, the population of blue whales exceeded 250 thousand individuals. But in the XX century. Because of merciless hunt, they were almost exterminated. In the period from 1904 to 1967, only in the southern hemisphere more than 350 thousand individuals were killed. Many animals died and from the hands of Soviet kitoboes from 1960 to 1970.

It was especially strong to China in 1931, which comes from the flourishing of the fishery. In this year, more than 29 thousand blue whales were destroyed only for one whaling season. And only in 1967, the situation began to be corrected when the world community stood on the defense of the animals, "and the whaling fishery was banned.

Population today

Nowadays, blue whales are common worldwide. Their habitat includes all the world's oceans, with the exception of the Arctic Ocean. Blue whales are one of the most rare varieties of cetacean. How many exactly on earth, scientists still have not decided. Their number fluctuates from 10 to 25 thousand.

One of the numerous populations of these animals, the growth of which continues the encouraging pace is the population of whales that live in the northern part of the Pacific Near the American California state. The number of its representatives reaches 2 thousand.

Such a kind as pygmy whale or dwarf whales, lives mainly in the Indian Ocean. Recent studies speak in favor of the fact that these animals live in other areas of our planet.

Blue whales prefer to swim in deep-sea ocean waters. In the summer, they migrate towards the poles, in cooler waters. In winter, animals float back to the equator in warm water to reproduction. Due to the fact that the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres in time are opposite, the populations of representatives living in different ends of the planet are not communicated and not mixed with each other.

Danger for whales

Most biologists came to the conclusion that the blue whales are most susceptible to the danger of a complete disappearance of all cetaceans. A serious danger for them is:

• water pollution by chemicals;
• violation of the sound natural balance, because of which they are unable to find a couple;
• loss of permanent habitat;
• collisions with ships and confusion in fishing gear.

Climate change can have a significant effect on the supply of food, since global warming can lead to a shear of the acid-alkaline balance of sea water into the acidic side. This will affect the number of krill, which feeds blue whales.

Because of the climatic changes in the front areas, habitats of blue whales, there is a shift on south. In the front zones, water can rise from the depths, bringing with them the giant amounts of nutrients. This stimulates the growth of phytoplankton, and also creates conditions for the growth of populations that feed animals.

As a result of the migration of the front zones at a distance of 200-500 km, the blue whales are forced to migrate on to feed. Such movements over time can significantly reduce the energy reserves in the body and reduce the time of the feeding seasons. As the frontal zones are shifted in the southern direction, they reduce areas where animal species can develop, which serve as food for blue whales.