Whale

New Zealand Killer Whales and Penguins What exactly are cetaceans? The Cetaceans family includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Even though the cetacean family depends on water or more specifically the ocean for survival, they are mammals just like we are. Warm blooded, give birth, nurse their young, and breathe air through their lungs doesn 't that seem familiar? Yes they have the same characteristics as us which makes us both mammals. Scientist believed that about millions of years ago the ancestors of the whales used to live on land. Isn 't that crazy? Can you imagine seeing whales just walking around? Well, not exactly, scientist believed that they looked kind of like a small dog and were probably related to the hippos and went…

Echolocation in Toothed Whales How Toothed Whales use Echolocation? Echolocation is a process of emitting sound and the interpreting and understanding of the echos which follow to determine an animal’s surroundings. This processed is used by different animals living in different environments but one of the most notable is the use of echolocation by toothed whales. Toothed Whales such as Dolphins and many types of Whales live under water and use echolocation for understanding of their…

like without whales? One thing that is never thought about when whales are being hunted is how important they are. For humans to understand the purpose of the whale and just going off the information one has learned may be different. Understanding the whale may be more complex than thought out to be. There is more to know about whales other than they can be big intimidating creatures. It is important to make sure whales are being protected. When an individual enters in a different environment…

Whales and Dolphins in Danger In 2007, a film called “The Cove” was released revealing the savage hunt of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. In 2013, “Blackfish” was released, revealing the monstrosities of keeping killer whales captive at SeaWorld. Both films received award nominations and massive media attention for their call to action and revelation of the endangerments of marine mammals. However, there are so many more dangers to whales and dolphins than just dolphin slaughter, or circus shows at…

Far off on the horizon, you see a pod of whales. You immediately jump up and start smiling and laughing. The whales jump out of the crystal blue water, and then land with grace. It blows your mind how animals of such size have such gentleness. What makes whales so special is that they are mammals. They are the largest mammals, in fact. Also, whales are unique in their diet, their early life, and their ways of survival. Hopefully by the end of this, you will see how incredible the whale species…

animals they were rapidly killing off, such as bison and whales, life would be much more difficult. Since then, there has been a great change in the way people treat their important earthlings. While many animals were victims to the American people in the 19th…

A tale of modern whales: Divergence and radiation of Neoceti during the Oligocene period likely driven by environmental changes in Southern Oceans ZOO*4910 Integrative Vertebrate Biology Group 04 Candace Flynn (cflynn@mail.uoguelph.ca), Melissa Westaway, Katherine Znotinas, and Daniela Banda Marin 2 November 2014 Abstract Reasons for divergence within the animal kingdom is heavily debated across many orders. Macroevolution in Cetacea has been attributed to a variety of…

In their paper “Trans-Pacific Consumption of Cephalopods by North Pacific Killer Whales (Orcinus orca), “ Hanson and Walker points out that cephalopods, specifically squid, may be a larger part of the diet of many transient killer whales in the North Pacific Ocean that was once thought. They identified three particular ecotypes of whales observed in the North Pacific which include residents and offshores that both feed primarily on other smaller fish, and transients which feed on marine mammals.…

They tend to live in high altitudes, but they swim in the deep dark water mostly. They are highly intelligent creatures that have very close knit social groups. The bonds they make with each other are as strong as the bond between human and their relatives. A young orca whale will stay with its mother for its entire life. A group of mothers and their children, young or old, it called a matriline. It is very rare for a member of a matriline to stray away from the group for over an hour. Forcing…

Not only does SeaWorld separate the mothers from their calves, but they also force incest among the whales. Like our own species, incest is seen as taboo to whales. Hargrove explained that one female whale Katina was mated with her son Taku, creating the calf named Nalani. Katina refused to accept Nalani after her birth. Another instance of this was with a whale named Kohana who bred with her uncle Keto two different times. Kohana rejected both of those offspring (Hargrove). It is clear that…