Whales and Dolphins Food
So
what is whales and dolphins food?
Although dolphins are also whales, their diet is different from the large baleen whales.
What Do Whales Eat?
Large baleen whales may be some of the largest animals in the world, but their food is tiny.
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What they eat depends on the exact species, but generally they eat zooplankton, crustaceans, krill and small fish.
They are filter feeders but they use different methods.
Blue whales for example, cruise-feed through krill or fish swarms, catching food in their open mouth. Then they push the water out through their baleen while the food gets caught behind the baleen and swallowed.
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Gray whales feed on the ocean floors,where they filter shrimp and shellfish out of the mud.
Humpback whales use the method of bubble netting where many of them work together. They use bubbles to force schools of fish to the surface. Then they swim up through the fish with their mouths wide open to catch large amounts of small fish.
What Do Dolphins Eat?
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Dolphins and other toothed whales are active hunters and take bigger prey than the filter feeders above.
Toothed whales eat larger fish, and other large sea creatures such as fish, squid, crab, mollusks, and larger shellfish.
Beaked whales don't have any teeth, but they are not filter feeders - they suck their prey, mostly squid, into their mouths.
Killer whales have more teeth than average dolphins and they take very large prey, such as penguins, seals and sea lions. Toothed whales use their teeth to catch their prey, not to chew it. They commonly swallow their food whole or tear off large chunks of meat.
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Whale Food Chain
Dolphin Food Chain
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