Essay: Humpback whale General Information about the Humpback whale: The Humpback whale (Latin Megaptera novaeangliae) is a mammal, which belongs to the rorqual family. Humpback whale are usually 12 to 20 metres long and weight around 20 to 40 tons. The side of their stomach is white and their back is black or dark. Older Humpback whales can have a lot of barnacles on their bodies. Once an adult barnacle has settled down, it cannot change its position anymore. It will stay on the body of the Humpback whale. The maximum age a Humpback whale can reach is 40 years. A unique feature the Humpback whale has is its very big flipper or fin. It has one of the biggest whale flippers, which can be found on planet earth. The flipper is used to change …show more content…
These whale songs can be heard by humans because Humpback whales usually swim near the coast and sing with a strong voice. Whale songs can be heard in 30 kilometres’ distance. The Humpback whale songs consist of single verses, which repeat regularly. The songs are Page 2 individual to each Humpback whale: the singing of every Humpback whale is unique and not alike. That voice or singing can even have an accent. The singing does not stay the same, it can change though the years. With a volume of 190 decibels the singing is one of the loudest noises in the animal world, e.g. a volume of 65 decibels is considered as normal (normal talking, watching tv in low volume). Whaling: Whaling is one of the biggest problems for the Humpback whale population. Because of whaling the Humpback whale population has decreased dramatically to 125.000. Whaling became popular in the 17th century, this led to a dramatic decrease. To stop the decreasing a whaling ban was codified in 1966. One of the reasons the Humpback whales was easy to catch is, that it swims near the coast and is smaller in comparison to other bigger whales. The Humpback whales are also known to choose the same path to hunt their food, therefore the hunters could
Keeping these huge animals in small pools does not seem right. Big mammals are not meant to be in small pools. When these mammals are born they stay with there mother all of their lives. They never leave their mothers until they are captured and put in small pools which is not right. Killer whales hunt in pods, the oldest female in the pod is usually the group leader. Each pod has its own set of whistles, clicks, and calls that only members of the pod recognize similar to having a unique language. Members of many pods hunt in teams. For example, they may work together to create waves to knock a seal from an ice floe and into the open water. In many pods,...
Monodon Monoceros, Latin for “one tooth, one horn”#; or Narhval, Norwegian for “corpse whale” , because of it mottled coloration suggests a bloated corpse#.Narwhals are in the white whale family, along with the beluga, but are actually covered with spots of black, white, gray-green, and cream. Newborns are dappled gray-brown, white spots come with age#. At birth the calves are about 5 feet long and 180 pounds. Male Narwhals can reach 16 feet long, not including the horn which is 8 to 9 feet long, and weigh around 3000 pounds. Females are around 13 ft. long, do not have tusks, and weight around 2000 pounds. Adult males and females are usually dark in the area of the head, especially top of the head and upper and lower jaws#. Unlike most other whales, Narwhals have no dorsal fin, instead they have a low bumpy ridge that begins at about the midpoint of the back and continues to the fluke#.
Dolphins make up the largest and most diverse family of cetaceans. The family contains 26 recognized species of which 13 tend to have long well defined beaks and streamlined robust bodies. Many vary in size, shape, colors, beaks and flippers, as humans have various characteristics.
Killer whales are one of the most fascinating displays of ocean life. The killer whale has characteristics that are important to its survival in the ocean. It is interesting to know that killer whales have a plentiful diet. It is astounding to see how killer whales behave in the ocean. I plan to tell you about the killer whale, its characteristics, its diet, and its behavior in the ocean as well as the predation of the orca.
Their dorsal fin is extremely long, tampered and pointed in a triangular shape or rounded and curved towards the end. The skull is oval shaped and the beak is extremely short and rounded at the end. The killer whale’s jaw is powerful with teeth that are able to tear apart flesh of their prey. They can withstand the jolting, wiggling and hurtling movements of prey that are trying to escape. The killer whale is born with a single blow hole instead of two. Their flippers are paddle shaped with rounded ends and flukes are tapered back and pointed at the end resembling to a triangle/pyramid
Shirihai, H. and B. Jarrett (2006). Whales, Dolphins and Other Marine Mammals of the World. Princeton, Princeton University Press. p.185-188.
Although the trainers are not allowed to be in the water with them, the trainers still use the same tactics of training. Some of the tricks the whales practice on a daily basis are, waving, showing off their teeth, laying on their side, and squirting water out of their blow hole. The shows still consist of the same concepts and the crowds continue to pay to see the whales do tricks. Whales living in captivity remain in distress and continue to lash out at trainers and other whales in their pools (10 Things You Didn’t
While whaling isn’t nearly as popular today, in this time many men made, or attempted to make, a living in this industry. Despite the hard work, dangerous standards and general intimidation, shipmates were lured into the industry for the high pay. When feeling protected by a large ship, weapons and a fearless captain, it was easy to forget the power of what they were hunting. The sperm whale is the largest of all the toothed whales, with males maturing at an average size of fifty- two feet and sometimes can reach up to sixty-seven feet in length. “It’s twenty-foot-wide tail pumped up and down.” (Philbrick, 2000, 82) The domain of life that the sperm whale belongs to is the Eukaryote. This is because the sperm whale is an organism that is made up of cells that contain a nucleus as well as other structures that are enclosed by the cell membrane. The kingdom that it belongs to is the Animalia. This is because they are multi-cellular organisms. These animals contain other distinct features including; “interior digestion of f...
Geoffrey Rush, the voice behind the seagull named Nigel, literally held his tongue when recording some of his lines. He wanted to sounds as if he had water and two small fish in his beak. Another example is when, Barry Humphries is vocalizing the shark. He used such harsh tone, echos, and fadeaways to portray the aggressive and moving shark. All characters voices are very realistic and sharp.
...ould estimate where they spent most of their time. By the length of the other skeletal bones, the size and shape of the animals could be determined, which also shared insight to its behavior. The largest primitive whales could indeed walk on land, but only did so for short periods because their legs could not take so much weight for long amounts of time. These behaviors allow scientists and paleontologists to understand even more as to how these fascinating and mysterious animals went from ruling on land to taking over the sea.
is, without a doubt, the largest inhabitant of the globe; the most formidable of all whales to encounter;
The other characters also have a projected voice but not like the lions throughout the play. The gestures made throughout this musical were animal like and very big, since the theater it self was large. The directors for the 1st and 2nd time I saw the Lion King did a good job in picking the characters. Each character allowed me as an audience member to imagine that these humans were actual animals. I am not sure of the ages of these characters but the all fit the role they were portraying.
The morphology of whale sharks is mostly similar to aquatic fish species, but many specific traits help differentiate them from the rest. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world and can reach a size of around 20 meters (Martins, C., and C. Knickle). This is often compared to the size of a school bus. The shark has a very large transverse mouth. They have 5 very large gill slits and have a larger first dorsal fin compared to the second one (Whale Shark). They have a distinctive spotted “checkerboard” pattern with stripes (Martins, C., and C. Knickle). It is not exactly known why they have this specific body marking. It is believed that the body markings act as a camouflage. The strange thing about whale sharks is that they have 300 rows of teeth that play no role in feeding (Martins, C., and C. Knickle).
Their beautiful song can travel miles and miles underwater. These sequences of moans, howls, cries, and other noises are quite complex and often continue for hours on end. It is most likely that humpbacks sing to communicate with others and to attract potential mates (National Geographic). Humpback whales travel in groups called pods. These whales, like others, regularly leap from the water, landing with a tremendous splash. Scientists aren’t sure if this breaching behavior serves some purpose. These whales are famous for the water acrobatics. Humpback whales can frequently be seen leaping out of the water and sometimes can use their flukes to propel themselves completely out of the water (Animal Planet).
Did you know in the world there are more than 90 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises? (WDC) The dolphin is a very important animal to the ocean and there are many different types to discover. In order to learn about dolphins, it is important to discuss where they live, their appearance, and what they eat. Some helpful words to understand are “dorsal fin”, a dorsal fin is the top pointed fin on the dolphins back, “flippers”, a flipper is a flat fin that dolphins use to swim, and “echolocation” is a tool dolphins use to find food by sounds bouncing off of objects (dictionary.com).