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Right Whale
Facts and Knowledge:
The right whale is a giant of the seas. Instead of teeth, it uses long plates called baleen or whalebone to strain its food while skimming the surface of the water. Old time whalers gave the right whale its unusual name because they thought it was the "RIGHT" whale to hunt, it swam very slowly, floated even when it was dead, and yielded large quantities of oil and whalebone.
Habits: The right whale lives in shallow coastal waters in herds of up to six family members. In individuals may swim off to join another group, but in a few days they return to the original herd. The right whale often leaps up from the water's surface (called breaching) and blows its V - shaped spout up to a height of 16 feet. It cruises on the surface for 5 to 10 minutes, blowing about once a minute, and then dives below for 10 to 20 minutes.
Right Whale & Man:Because it moves slowly (its top speed is just over six miles per hour) and yields large quanaties of oil and whale bone, the right whale has been hunted more than any other whale. It was finally protected by law in 1936. Most hunting occurred in the Southern Hemisphere, with huge catches recorded of New Zealand. Once wide spread, this whale is now found only in scattered herds.
Breeding:Mating accurs in early spring, after a playful courtship ritual i which the male pushes and nuzzles the female and then strokes her flippers and tail flukes. After a gestation period of nine to ten months, a single calf is born tail first in a shallow low bay. Tight away the new born is pushed to the surface so it can take its first breath. The calf nurses for seven months and spends the next two or three years close to its mother. It begins to breed at five to ten years. It is thought that the right whale breed earlier and more frequently today than in the days before whaling to compensate for their lost numbers.
Food & Feeding: The right whale feeds by slowly skimming the ocean surface with it mouth wide open. Every few minutes it closes its lips and presses it tongue against the roof of its mouth to strain the water out between long baleen plates. The baleen is actually made of fused hairs, not bone. Plankton and frill trapped by the bristles are collected by the whale's tongue and swallowed. Debris also gets caught on the plates, and the whale frequently stops to roll the debris into a ball with its tongue and then flick it out of its mouth.
Key Facts:Sizes, Weight, breeding, lifestyle, related Species
Height:
Length; Adults, 40 to 60 ft. Calves,
12 to 18 ft at birth
Weight: Adults about 60 tons
Breeding:
Sexual maturity: 5 to 10 years
Mating Early Spring
Gestation: 9 to 10 months
No of young Usually 1 calf
Lifestyle:
Habit: Sociable, lives in small herds
of 6 adults and young.
Call: Loud bellows, soft moans, and belches,
series of pulsing sounds..
Diet: Plankton, krill, and ocean bottom
mollusks.
Life span: not known, but thought to be
about 30 years.
Related species: There are 3 very similar
subspecies: Balaena glacialis glacialis, B.g. japonica, and B.g .austrais.
Distribution: Now found only off
the coasts of Newfoundland, Madeira, Patagonia, Southwestern Australia,
New Zealand, Chile, ALaska, and the Aleutian Islands..
Conservation: Once the most hunted of
all the whales, the right whale is now protected by law. There are
only about 2,000. Left although its numbers are increasing, it is still
endangered.
Features of the Right Whale:
Bonnet: The right whale has lumps called callosities
growning on its head. These horny out growths of skin may be 4 inches
high. They are infested with parasitic worms, whale lice, and colonies
of barnacles. The callosities are concentrated on the head, in from
of the blowhole, are are known collectively as the bonnet.
The blue whale has approximately 320 baleen plates,
measuring 40 inches long by 22 inches wide. Long bristles on the end of
each plate force the water out of it mouth, the whale licks the plankton
off with its fleshy tongue.
Did you know:
The right whales are rarely stranded because
they are familiar with shallow waters.
The right whale is also known as the Biscay whale,
Biscayan right whale, and the Great right whale.
The right whales head is about one fourth it
length. It has an arched jaw to accommodate the eight foot long baleen
plates.
A recorded picked up a regular clacking noise
that was thought to be the right whales echolocation system sounds
that enable whales to navigate. The noise was discovered to be made
by baleen plates banging into each other during feeding.
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