The Blue Whale - The Largest Animal That Ever Lived

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The Blue Whale - The Largest Animal That Ever Lived

Blue Whales are magnificent creatures and one of the best places to see them is from Southern California. Whale watching trips go out regularly from San Diego, Los Angeles, Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Blue Whales are the biggest animals ever to live on the face of the earth " much larger than the largest dinosaurs that roamed the earth 200 million years ago. These mega-whales have have been scientifically weighed at nearly 200 tons - an amazing ten tons more than a DC-10 commercial airliner. By comparison, the largest elephants only weigh about six tons - 30 times less than a Blue Whale! Scientists have measured Blue Whales at more than one hundred feet long where by comparison the largest dinosaur skeletons you will find in museums are no more than 90 feet long.

There are many myths about these creatures, one is that the heartbeat can be heard for 20 miles which is ridiculous because nobody can even hear a Blue Whale heartbeat from ten feet away.

Interestingly, one of the smallest seabirds on earth, Cassins Auklet, and the Blue Whale, the largest animal ever to have lived on earth, both subsist primarily on the same prey: krill. Blue Whales are baleen whales. Instead of teeth, they have a series of flexible plates called baleen that they use to strain up to four tons of these tiny shrimp like crustaceans from the ocean each day.

Blue Whales have been known to breed with Fin Whales, the second largest animals on earth. Several hybrid whales have been documented by scientists using DNA analysis.

Blue Whales are thought to be solitary or perhaps associate with one other individual. It is not known whether Blue Whale pairs stay together over long periods of time. Where there are high concentrations of food as many as 50 Blue Whales have seen in one area, although this is exceptional because they do not normally form the large close-knit groups seen in other baleen whale species.

Blue Whales usually travel at 10 - 12 miles per hour, however, when they are alarmed they are capable to moving faster than 30 miles per hour!

Blue Whales are known to inhabit oceans all over the world. They are especially attracted to Pacific Ocean waters off California and Mexico which can host up to 30% of the worlds entire population during the warmer spring and summer months due to the excellent supply of food.

Blue Whales are found throughout the world but scientists do not know exactly where they breed or give birth. Feeding has been documented in both tropical and cold polar waters.

In the 1800's there were hundreds of thousands of Blue Whales all over the world. Then man developed weapons such as guns and exploding harpoons an proceeded to nearly eliminate these wonderful animals in the early twentieth century. Blue Whales were hunted mercilessly for 40 years until they were nearly extinct. Protection began in 1966 and their population is slowly recovering with perhaps 6,000 to 8,000 Blue Whales left worldwide today.

About the Author

Terry Hunefeld retired from a CEO career in 2007 to pursue his passion of sailing the ocean to observe seabirds and mammals. He and his wife Ann own the lovely Inn at Moonlight Beach on the Pacific Coast of San Diego. If you would like to stay at a Bed and Breakfast in Del Mar or a Bed and Breakfast in Carlsbad, be sure to check out Inn at Moonlight Beach.