If you see a right whale leaping out of the water, it might be trying to say something. This whale lives in groups (called pods) and has several ways of communicating with its pod members, often creating huge splashes that other right whales will hear. This creature also moans and belches, signaling that it has found food; that's an important whale message. The creature needs 1,500 pounds of tiny sea creatures, called plankton and krill, to fuel its body every day.
Dinner Plates: Instead of teeth, the right whale has up to 250 long plates (baleen) hanging from its upper jaw. The plates let hundreds of gallons of seawater in and out of the whale's mouth, and their hairy edges filter out the plankton and small animals it eats.
Tongue Dance: This huge aquatic mammal uses its muscular, 2,000-pound tongue to scrape plankton from its baleen and swallow it. The right whale's tongue is also agile enough to flick out seaweed and other material the animal can't eat.
Splash Talk[]
A leap out of the water could be a signal from one whale to another.
Right whales usually live in small groups, which contain ten or fewer members. The whales constantly communicate with each other through grunts and moans, telling other pod members that food is near, a potential predator has been spotted or that the pod is moving on. The whales often scatter widely around an area, so one whale might leap clear out of the water, an act called "breaching," to get the attention of a distant pod-mate. A right whale will breach up to ten times in a row, and the loud splash it makes can be heard easily from miles away!
I Know You! Right whales are born with patches of rough skin, called callosities, on their heads. People who study the whales use the callosity patterns to identify individual whales, and some think the whales might do the same thing.
Sailing Away: This whale isn't a fast swimmer, usually cruising at five miles per hour. It takes a lot of energy to push its bulk through the water, so when it needs a break, it lifts its tail out of the water so it can be pushed along by the wind, like a sailboat.
Whale of a Good Time[]
- It's time to eat, and a right whale stays just below the ocean's surface, knowing that this is where most plankton and krill float freely in the water.
- The whale opens its mouth, sucking in gallons of seawater-and the mass of tiny sea creatures that are in it. The plankton and krill stick in the whale's baleen.
- The whale dives down and pushes the water out of its mouth with its massive tongue. It swallows its food, then prepares to surface again for another round of feeding.
Trivia[]
- The specific species featured on the card is the Atlantic Right Whale. The Right Whale was originally considered one species, but around 2001, it was split into 3 species within the Right Whale classification.
- The name "Right Whale" comes from them being the "right" whale to hunt when whaling was prominent, due to their slow nature and all of the resources they provide.
- The card's front illustration is also used in the Wildlife Explorer series, for the Right Whale's profile. The main difference is the illustration is flipped between the two series.
- The multi-paneled illustration on the back, "Whale of a Good Time", is also used in the Wildlife Explorer series. Here, titled "Mass Consumption", there is an additional illustration of the whale spouting water out of its nostril.
- Finally, both real photos on the card are also shared between the series; the main one on the back is even the front image used for the Wildlife Explorer Card.
- The right whale is featured in Find the Fish on Monster Mania 99.