(This was originally posted on January 8th, 2023.)

I was trying to decide on the first animal post of 2023.  Took a while before I realized that I should start with the gentle giant: Blue Whale.

These whales can grow from 80 to 100 feet with the record being 108 feet.  They can weigh from 100,000 to 150,000 pounds.  Their tongue alone weighs about as much as a full-grown elephant.  A blue whale’s heart alone can be 400 pounds and it may only beat twice per minute when the animal is submerged.  They start off big too with newborn calves being 8,800 pounds and 26 feet long.  Blue whales have one of the fastest growth rates in the animal kingdom at 200 pounds per day.

One thing about the blue whale is that it feeds on one of the small animals.  Blue whales have baleen, which are filter-like ‘teeth’ in their mouths.  They move through the ocean and the water goes through the baleen.  The hairs catch the tiny food, which is then swallowed by a throat that is the size of a dinner plate.  In other words, a blue whale would choke on a human.  They eat nearly 9,000 pounds of krill a day.

Blue whales are the loudest animals on the planet too.  Their calls can be heard by others from up to 1,000 miles away.  They hit a decibel level of 188.  To compare, a jet engine comes in at 140 decibels.  Blue whales can call at a very low frequency as well.  Their range here is 8-25 hertz.  The songs vary by population groups too.  Studies have shown that there is a decline in tonal frequency, which may be due to an increase in populations . . . That brings us to everyone’s favorite part.

The blue whale is considered endangered, but it’s population is slowly increasing.  They gestate for 10-12 months, which means they don’t give birth very often.  This doesn’t easily offset the damage that was done by its top predator, which isn’t the orca.  Yes, orcas do hunt blue whales, but human whaling in the past decimated the blue whales.  They used to be untouchable until someone invented those huge harpoon guns.  This brought them from 350,000 to the current number of 25,000, which is slowly increasing.  People wanted their oil back in the day, but they’ve been protected since 1966.  Currently, they are still in danger from being struck by large shipping vessels and pollution.

Let’s go to the pictures and videos: