Our planet is unique and amazing. It is inhabited by various beings of various forms and the sizes, high and low, small and big. Many of them are the real giants. For example, a blue whale – the largest marine animal.
Instruction
1. On January 23, 1922 in the Panama Canal the blue whale weighing 135 tons was caught. Its length reached 30 meters. It should be noted that the usual sizes of females and males of blue whales in the northern hemisphere reach about 23 meters. Heart of large individuals weighs more half tones.
2. The dark gray body of a blue whale with a bluish shade is speckled by a marble pattern and spots. At the same time on a belly and in a back half of a body of spots it is more, than, for example, on a back.
3. The blue whale from Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen, Greenland and the Chukchi Sea to ices of Antarctic is widespread. Rather seldom he can be met in tropical belt. The blue whale winters in warm waters: in the southern hemisphere – at the latitude of Madagascar, South Africa, Ecuador, Peru, Australia; in the northern hemisphere – at the latitude of the Caribbean Sea, North Africa, Mexico, California, Taiwan, the Southern Japan.
4. During the summer period the blue whale prefers to spend time in waters Chukchi and the Bering Sea, Northern Atlantic. However It should be noted that recently its number began to decrease.
5. Blue whales the isolated herds keep. So in 1959 in the southern hemisphere, near the islands of Herd, Kerguelen, Kroze and Marion well isolated herd of dwarfish blue whales was revealed. The Japanese scientists counted their number, it was about 10000 heads. These animals were 3 meters less than ordinary blue whales of Antarctic. Dwarfish pygmies had lighter color and a short tail.
6. Today experts allocate 3 subspecies of blue whales: pygmies, southern and northern. Animals eat smaller crustaceans, chernoglazka. As a rule, blue whales do not eat fish. According to the facts, the full stomach of a mature animal contains 1.5-2 t of crustaceans. Quite often during a wintering their stomachs are empty.
7. Blue whales mainly during the winter period in warm waters propagate each two years. Pregnancy on average lasts about 11 months. The cub of a blue whale is born body weight – 2-3 t and length – 6-8 m. Their females with milk feed about 7 months.
8. The blue whale in a quiet state moves with a speed of 10-15 km/h. The animal frightened of something can gather speed to 30-40 km/h. In such rhythm it moves only within several minutes.
9. On the surface of skin of a blue whale quite often there live parasites of a class of Crustacea: usonogy crustaceans (ksenobalanusa, koronula) and whale louses. Their shells plunge into skin of an animal the basis.