Whale Information

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• Whales and dolphins are mammals, therefore their anatomy is different from fish.
• They do have fish-like features, because they live in the same habitat. 
• But, unlike fish, they have lungs and breathe oxygen from the air, not water.
• They have bones for five "fingers" inside their flippers, and they also have much larger brains.
  

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• Baleen Whales are large, often solitary animals. They swim long distances and it is not easy for them to find a mate in the vast oceans. 

• They, therefore, migrate to certain places in warmer waters every year to mate or give birth to calves.The calves take quite a while before they are independent so females only give birth once every 2-3 years.
  

Cetaceans are some of the most mobile creatures in the world, only surpassed by some birds and fish. Their high metabolic rate and their carniverous diet require them to cover large distances in pursuit of food; usually to cooler waters, then back to warmer waters again to breed and calve. The three artic whales, however, tend to stay in the north, near the ice. They synchronize their movements with the formation and movement of the ice.

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Whale Echolocation

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• Echolocation works like a sonar. The toothed whales produce sounds, which travel in the water, and they wait for echos to come back. The character and timing of the returning echos tell the whales about their surroundings. It is mostly used to find prey and predators, but it is also used for navigation (finding familiar landmarks). However, it is not used as a navigation means during long-distance migration trips by large baleen whales. Echolocation is (as far as we know), is only used by toothed whales. Baleen whales are believed to use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation.

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• It is really hard to measure intelligence when human and whale intelligence are not really comparable. While whales cannot count numbers or do math, we'd be hopeless if we had to create a whale song that meant something. That said, both whales and dolphins do have some of the largest brains of all animals. They have very complicated whale songs and complex social systems which shows a fair amount of intelligence-probably more than we realize.
  

What Do Whales Eat?

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