Interesting facts about Whale
Importance of whales
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Whale is the only animal who's some species are counted among the world's largest animals. Blue whale is considered the world's largest animal. A blue whale can have a size around 30 meters. There is no any other biggest animal ever existed in the world. It means they are even bigger than dinosaurs. Not only this, a whale can have the weight of around 40 elephants. It is believed that the count of blue whale in Antarctica was once 2,25000, but now this count is only 3000. According to reports, some species of whale are going to be extinct within 25 years. But why these creatures are being hunted? What is the importance of whales in our environment, and will their existence or extinction effect human beings?
The species of whale is divided into two main groups, called tooth whale and baleen whale. The tooth whale, means the whales which have teeth. These whales find other creatures like seals, squid and fishes and hunt them for their food with the help of teeth. The Baleen whale are the whales which have brush like structure in place of teeth and With the help of these brushes like structure, they filter and eat creatures like shrimp and krill.
Importance of whales
Each living organism plays an important role in nature, but there are some animals without which existence is impossible. They are called the key stone species and whale is one of the key stone animal. Now let's see what does the whale do, without which the life is impossible?
1. Whale absorb carbon dioxide
From breathing to the production of goods, each process releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide, due to which the concentration of carbon dioxide become high in environment. Whale absorbs this carbon dioxide from the environment. According to researchers, a Whales absorb around 33 tons of carbon dioxide throughout their life span, which means each whale absorb the same amount as equal to 1500 trees.
2. Whales regulate ocean
The whales go in the depth of the ocean in search of food, where they easily get shrimp and krill. But for breathing, they come on the surface of water and poop as well. These poops are called fecal plums. The fecal plums are rich in nutrients and when they get spread on the surface of water, various microorganisms are born out which are food for fishes.
3. Whales facilitate plankton
From all microorganisms which are facilitated by whales, one of them is plankton. Plankton is small microscopic organisms, they are of two types called plant plankton and animal plankton. The plankton also helps to absorb carbon dioxide, which is equal to 1.7 billion tree from the environment.
Some interesting facts about whale
1. Whale live a long life
Some species of whale can live more than 200 years. Throughout this long life span, whales pass on important information to their next generation, like humans. Like, breeding places, migration routs, and information of food availability.
2. Longest migratory mammals
Some species of whale can travel around10,000 kilometers in search of food and breeding, which is not possible for other species.
4. They transfer cultural values
Research has found that like humans' whales also have their cultural values. From social behavior to raising of calves, they pass on every information to their next generation, which is a unique characteristic.
5. Whales can sing
It sounds impossible, but according to researchers, whales produce different types of sounds, and they use them in a such pattern which looks like they are singing. It is believed that they produce these sounds to attract the opposite gender.
Unfortunately, whale are being killed for various purposes. Humans kill whales and use them as food, for making perfume, machine oil, and various other reason. Nowadays, each body part of whale is being used for these commercial purposes. The disturbing point is that, the revival of whale is difficult, because their reproduction rate is very slow. If whales were not killed for commercial purposes, today they would help in controlling the airpollution global warming .
About the Creator
Parveen Baloch
MPhil/Zoology, Freelance writer
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