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🐾 Blue Whales
The biggest animal that has ever lived on Earth — bigger than any dinosaur — swims in our oceans right now.
Photo: NOAA, Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
📍 Where is it?
📍 Monterey Bay, United States — see it on the big map →
Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived — bigger than the biggest dinosaurs. A blue whale can grow to about 30 metres long, as long as three school buses parked end to end, and weigh up to 200 tonnes.
Even though they are enormous, blue whales eat some of the smallest animals in the sea. They gulp huge mouthfuls of seawater and push the water out through bristly plates in their mouths called baleen. The water escapes, but thousands of tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill get caught and swallowed. A blue whale can eat about 4 tonnes of krill in a single day.
Blue whales visit Monterey Bay in California every summer to feed. You can tell one is near by the tall spray of breath it blows from the top of its head — it can shoot almost 10 metres into the air.
🤩 Wow fact!
A blue whale's heart is about the size of a small car, and its tongue weighs as much as an elephant.
🧠 Quiz time!
What do blue whales eat?