The Whales of Antarctica
- KILLER WHALES SMALL TYPE B2. Orcinus orca. …
- SPERM WHALE. Physeter microcephalus. …
- HUMPBACK WHALE. Megaptera novaeangliae. …
- SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE. Eubalaena australis. …
- KILLER WHALES TYPE A. Orcinus orca. …
- ANTARCTIC BLUE WHALE. Balaenoptera musculus intermedia. …
- KILLER WHALES LARGE TYPE B1. Orcinus orca. …
- SEI WHALE.
Are there whales around Antarctica?
Whales can be found all around Antarctica starting with the Drake Passage crossing but particular hotspots include Wilhelmina Bay known as ‘Whale-mina Bay’ due to the extraordinary number of whales found here largely due to the availability of krill. Humpback whales are particularly common in the bay.
Can whales survive in Antarctica?
Whales never breed in Antarctica, preferring the more temperate climates for their young. However, Antarctica is actually a hot spot for whales due to the rich pickings of marine food, including large numbers of krill!
What is the most common whale in Antarctica?
There are up to 8 whale species to encounter in Antarctica. Humpbacks are the most sighted, followed by Minke. February and March are best months for sightings.
How big are Antarctic orcas?
The three types of Antarctic killer whales Type A killer whales are the largest, reaching up to 9.5 meters (31 feet) long. These orcas prefer to live in open waters of the Southern Ocean, feeding mostly on minke whales.
Can blue whales outrun orcas?
The whale escaped by outpacing the orcas a technique that they are known to employ. According to Totterdell, the mammal targeted in the recent attack was a 20-metre pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) a subspecies of blue whale found in the Indian and southern Pacific Oceans.
Are there blue whales in Antarctica?
Antarctic blue whales are the largest animals on Earth and a spectacular wonder to witness in the wild. They are the true Antarctic giants. However, they are critically endangered, very slowly recovering from the impacts of 20th Century whaling.
How do killer whales survive in Antarctica?
Streamlined bodies which help them glide through the water easily and swim faster. Individual orcas can beach themselves onto the land or ice to frighten penguins or seals into the water, where they are caught by the waiting orca pod! Thick layer of blubber for warmth.
Do any animals live on Antarctica?
Antarctica’s wildlife is diverse and unique. It is the only continent on Earth which has no terrestrial mammals, but is home to a range of marine wildlife and birds, including penguins! The most common birds in Antarctica are penguins. It is home to 18 different species, including the Emperor Penguin.
Why are whales special?
Whales are Biologically Special They are the largest animals on earth. They include the biggest creature ever to have lived on our planet, the 100-foot long female blue whale. Their sheer size commands extreme respect. And whales and dolphins have large and complex brains.
How did the whale evolve?
Both hippos and whales evolved from four-legged, even-toed, hoofed (ungulate) ancestors that lived on land about 50 million years ago. … Unlike the hippo’s ancestor, whale ancestors moved to the sea and evolved into swimming creatures over a period of about 8 million years.
How does the blue whale survive in Antarctica?
After commercial whalers decimated their population during the 20th century, the Antarctic blue whale may be on the verge of a comeback. Some of the Antarctic blue whales that survived the genetic bottleneck may still be alive today. …
Why is it called a sperm whale?
4. Sperm whales are named after the spermaceti a waxy substance that was used in oil lamps and candles found on their heads. 5. Sperm whales are known for their large heads that account for one-third of their body length.
What is the rarest whale?
the spade-toothed whale Based on its scarcity, only two intact animals having been seen in the last 140 years, the spade-toothed whale is the world’s rarest whale.
Are killer whales whales or dolphins?
Killer whales are part of the dolphin family. There are three main types of killer whales, or ecotypes, in the North Pacific: Resident, Transient, and Offshore. In fact, they are the largest member of the Delphinidae, or dolphin family.
What are Biggs killer whales?
Officially known as West Coast transients but increasingly referred to as Bigg’s killer whales, these marine mammal-eating orcas (Orcinus orca) are spending increasing time in the Salish Sea to consume their marine mammal prey including harbor seals, Steller sea lions, and harbor and Dall’s porpoise.
Who eats killer whales?
Killer whales are apex predators, which means they have no natural predators. They hunt in packs, much like wolves, which are also at the top of their food chain.
Are there two types of killer whales?
There are three main types of killer whales in the North Pacific: Resident, Transient, and Offshore. Each ecotype differs in appearance, diet, habitat, genetics, and behavior. While all three types share at least part of their habitats, they are not known to interbreed with each other. Killer whales in Alaska.
Who would win a Megalodon or a killer whale?
At lengths of up to 60 ft. long the Megalodon would be twice as large as the killer whale (one of the only cetaceans known to hunt and kill sharks and other marine mammals).
How big is Megalodon compared to a blue whale?
Well, scientists guess that even the biggest Megalodon only reached a mere 58 feet (18 meters) (though some argue it was up to 82 feet [25 meters]). By contrast, the largest blue whales clock in at a little more than 100 feet (30 meters) long, and on average are between 75-90 feet (23-27 meters) in length.
Do blue whales eat humans?
Despite their large size, blue whales do not eat people. Actually, they couldn’t eat a person no matter how hard they tried to. … Without teeth, they lack the ability to tear apart their prey, so it would likely be impossible for these baleen whales to eat a human.
When did Antarctica see blue whales in 2020?
But then, in February 2020, scientists spotted 58 blue whales in the area and record the songs of dozens more.
When did Antarctica see blue whales?
Researchers say a recent survey of the waters around the sub-Antarctic island a center for industrial whaling until it was banned in the 1960s recorded dozens of blue whales where only a single whale had been seen between 1998 and 2018.
Is the blue whale population recovering?
After commercial whaling was banned in 1986, many species began recovering; by 1998, Southern Ocean blue whale populations had returned to around 1% of pre-whaling levels, the authors write. … Visual and acoustic surveys of the area between 1997 and 2017 found zero, or perhaps one or two, blue whales.
Do orcas eat polar bears?
PREY: The orca is at the top of the marine food web. Their diet items include fish, squid, seals, sea lions, walruses, birds, sea turtles, otters, other whales and dolphins, polar bears and reptiles. They even have been seen killing and eating swimming moose.
Do orcas eat humans?
Orca attacks on humans There is no record of an orca ever killing a human in the wild. This is because humans are not part of their natural diet. Occasionally, an orca may mistake a human for something they do eat, such as a seal.
Are male orcas solitary?
Group size. Killer whale group sizes observed in the wild can vary tremendously. … In fact, some transient pods observed in the North Pacific consist of a solitary adult male. Rarely, transient pods come together to form groups of 12 or more.
Why are spiders not found in Antarctica?
Cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water, and the oxygen content of seawater near the coast of Antarctica is especially high. … So far their results seem to support the oxygen hypothesis for polar gigantism: larger sea spiders fare poorly in low oxygen water.
Are there snakes in Antarctica?
There are more than 2,900 species of snakes in the world. … Snakes live on the ground, in trees, and in water. Snakes cannot survive in places where the ground stays frozen year round so there are no snakes north of the Arctic Circle or in Antarctica.
Does Antarctica have a flag?
Antarctica has no universally-recognized flag as the condominium that governs the continent has not yet formally selected one, although some individual Antarctic programs have formally adopted True South as the flag of the continent. Dozens of unofficial designs have also been proposed.
