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A blue whale is as long as two and a half big school buses.
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The blue whale can grow as long as
16 average-size humans lying head to foot.
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One blue whale weighs as much as
1,000 bottlenose dolphins.
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The buoyancy of water allows marine mammals to grow
much larger than animals on land.
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Welcome to your sub.
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From here, you can explore the size and behaviors of the blue whale—the largest animal ever to have
lived.
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The blue whale feeds on tiny shrimp-like animals called krill. It can take in up to 20,000 gallons
of water and krill in a single gulp.
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A blue whale can eat between 20-50 million calories per day—it takes a lot of energy to fuel an
animal this size.
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The whale slowly filters the water out, trapping the krill behind plates of baleen. This process can
take a minute or more.
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Finally, the krill—up to 1 million of them—slide down the whale’s grapefruit-sized throat and into
its stomach.
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Blue whales can grow up to 100ft long. They are the largest animals ever to have lived.
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Their torpedo-shaped bodies are perfectly adapted for long-distance ocean travel.
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Blue whales were hunted to near-extinction for their oil-rich blubber.
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Once hunting was banned, their numbers have slowly rebounded. Today there are an estimated 15,000.
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The blue whale often dives for 12-15 minutes at a time, but it can hold its breath for up to an
hour.
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It usually stays on the surface for a minute or two, blowing out old air and inhaling new.
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Its massive blowholes are controlled by strong muscles that prevent water from getting in when the
whale dives.
