In honor of World Whale Day, celebrated the third Sunday in February every year, here are five cool facts about blue whales.
1. Blue whales are the largest animals to ever live on Earth!
Imagine three school buses lined up end to end. That is the length of a blue whale. They can be as long as 33.5 m (110 ft.) and weigh more than 150,000 kg (330,000 lb.). They are even bigger than all the dinosaurs we know about!
2. Blue whale blowholes look like human noses.
Like all whales, blue whales have blowholes at the top of their heads so they can breathe air when they come to the surface. However, blue whales have a pair of blowholes instead of just one, like most whales.
3. Blue whales are really loud.
Blue whales communicate in whistles, pulses, groans and moans. In ideal conditions, their calls can be heard up to 1600 m (1000 mi) away! They are 188 decibels, which is louder than a jet engine. Along with sperm whales, they take the title as the world’s loudest animals.
4. Blue whales have really stretchy throats.
Blue whales have pleated throat grooves which allow their throats to expand four times their original width! In fact, blue whales double their volume when they inflate their throats with water and food.
5. You can tell a blue whale’s age by its ear wax.
Scientists have discovered that you can tell a whale’s age by counting the layers of waxlike earplugs in their ear canals. Typically, blue whales live about 80-90 years in the wild. When they looked at the layers of one blue whale’s earplugs, they determined the whale was 110 years old. That’s a lot of ear wax!
To learn more about blue whales, see our article, Blue Whale.
