![]() ![]() He thinks it is certainly significant that predation on an adult blue whale has now been proven, but he wonders whether this behaviour is really as exceptional as it might seem from current statistics. He has studied orca predation on half a dozen species of whale, and in a 2015 article in the same journal documented the systematic predation by orcas on the calves of Humpback whales, also in the Bremmer area, which he argues has altered the migration pattern of this huge whale. By 09:20, large chunks of skin and blubber had been stripped off the whale’s flanks behind the dorsal fin it was bleeding profusely and appeared to be weakening as it continued to reduce its swim speed.Ĭo-author Robert Pitman is a marine ecologist and one of the world’s most experienced observers of whales and dolphins. “After approximately 20 min of continuous attack by the killer whales, the blue whale slowed and began swimming in a circle with a radius of about 200 m. Their account of the adult blue whale’s demise concludes like this: They tell of the remarkable, highly co-ordinated social behaviour of groups of orcas hunting down, killing and eating an adult and two calves, in three separate incidents, off Bremer Bay in southwest Australia. Credible accounts of attacks go back at least to the 1970s.īut it has only been confirmed, in detail that is at once coolly scientific and compellingly dramatic, in a paper by John Totterdell and others in Marine Mammal Science late last year ( DOI:10.1111/mms.12906). ![]() Blue whale calves feed only on their mother’s milk for the first 6-12 months of their life and can gain as much as 200 pounds per day! That’s the same as an adult man.The news that orcas, or killer whales, the world’s largest predator today, can kill adult blue whales, possibly the world’s largest animal ever, has been long foretold. ![]() Female blue whales are typically larger than their male counterparts.Blue whales are solitary animals and usually live alone or in very small groups known as pods.The average lifespan of a blue whale is 80 – 90 years.Scientists believe that they use their song to not only communicate with other blue whales but also as sonar-navigation for the dark ocean depths. Their vocalizations are deep and loud and can be heard from hundreds of miles away. The blue whale is also known for its incredible voice. The blue whale tends to live in colder waters in the summer as that is where krill are more plentiful and it moves towards the equator during the winter. Once the water is removed, the blue whale is left with thousands of tiny krill trapped in the baleen which are then swallowed whole. The blue whale scoops up large mouthfuls of swimming krill and then pushes the water through the baleen plates (finger-nail like bristles attached to their upper jaw). ![]() This allows them to gracefully move through the water – sometimes as fast as 20 MPH! Since the blue whale has no natural predators, it can move throughout the ocean worry free.ĭespite its impressive size, the blue whale’s diet consists entirely of krill – a small, shrimp-like crustacean. Their body is a sleek, oval shape similar to a submarine. Under the water, the blue whale is a gorgeous deep blue color however, closer to the surface it can appear greyer. These amazing creatures usually live 80 – 90 years, but the oldest known blue whale on record was 110 years old. Blue whales on average are 80 – 100 feet long (the size of a basketball court!). They weigh on average 150 – 200 tons – which is as much as 15 school buses! Just their tongue can weigh as much as an elephant. The blue whale is the largest animal ever known to inhabit the earth. ![]()
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