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,...
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.
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.
Orcinus orca is the scientific name for the massive marine mammal. Orcas are not rare, but have declining numbers in some areas (Martin.) Orcas are found from the Artic Ocean to the Antartic Ocean. (Britannica) They belong to the Delphinidae, or dolphin family, which is the largest of their species. Female orcas grow to be at the most 15 feet, and weigh up to 4 tons, but the males can grow as large as 20-30 feet, and weight up to 8 tons. (Martin) The color of the orca is white in some spots, black on the majority of the body, and gray just behind the dorsal fin. It is white on the chin, belly and the eye. The white patch above the eye is usually mistaken for the eye, and may confuse their prey, but acts as a camouflage for the eye. The name “killer whale” makes people tend to believe that this is a viscious man-eating mammal, yet it is one of the most shrewd, docile and playful species of the marine mammals. The orca is sexually mature at 10-15 years of age, much like humans, which is 12-13 years of age. They tend to mate year round, and is able to have a calf every two years. It is interesting to know that lactation of the mother lasts 12 or more months (Wynne.) The life expectancy of orcas is 45-50 years of age.
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...
...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.
The order that the Narwhal is put into is the order Cetacea, a group of mammals that includes only whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The Narwhal belongs to the family Monodontidae, which is the family that consists of two groups of white whales, the Beluga whale and the Narwhal. The actual species name of the Narwhal is Monodon monoceros. The name Monodon literally means “one tooth” and monoceros translated to “one horn” (Narwhal, 2011). The Narwhal is considered to be a medium-sized whale.
sperm whale. In his categorization of all whales, Melville regards the sperm whale as the primate: "He
The Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, is part of the marine mammals group. They are found in oceans all over the world, they live in open waters. Even though they are mammals, they do not live on land (Monterey Bay Aquarium). Humpback whales are known for their magical song that can travel great distances. These gentle giants are omnivores, their main diet is krill. They are mostly found near coastlines feeding on tiny shrimp-like krill, plankton and small fish. Humpbacks migrate annually from summer feeding grounds near the poles to warmer winter breeding water closer to the Equator. Humpback whales are powerful swimmers, and they use their massive tail fin, called a fluke to propel themselves through or even out of the water! Mothers and their young swim close together, often touching one another with their flippers with what appears to be gestures of affection. Even though it takes more than one year for a humpback whale to grow fully, mother whales leave them after one year (National Geographic).
Whale sharks were named Rhincodon typus by Andrew Smith, in 1828. The naming was hard due to the similarities between the family Ginglymostomatidae and the family Orectolobiformes. The closest relatives to the whale shark are nurse and zebra sharks. The whale shark is the only species in their family, Rhincondontidae. Whale sharks...
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.
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).