Whales are the biggest animals to ever live on this planet. The Antarctic blue female whale is the largest. Whales’ physical size ranges from large to relatively small. In terms of their existence, whales are still younger than dinosaurs. You can find these extraordinary mammals in all five oceans—even the Arctic oceans. Besides swimming in the oceans, whales birth younger whales, feed them milk, bond with them, and even sing whale songs.
Underwater, the whales use these sounds and melodies to communicate over vast distances and better perceive their surroundings. All types of whales sing, and the variety of their songs ranges from the simplest to the most complex. That’s why they’re also called the Canaries of the sea.
That includes the sounds they make, like moans, cries, and howls, which other whales can hear for miles underwater. A whale typically recycles air in its larynx to sing.
Whale songs are complex and usually learned from other whales. Some of the whale songs have also appeared on album charts. A typical whale song contains long and patterned sequences of sounds. The massive blue whale sings songs in the lowest frequencies in a deeper voice. They can sing for days while migrating and create songs throughout the year.
There are two types of whales—Baleen and Toothed. The main difference is the absence and presence of teeth, respectively. The Baleen type of whales have fibrous baleen plates made from a kind of protein called keratin in their mouths. These plates help them filter out seawater and consume only their favorite food—krill, fish, and copepods. However, they consume them either by opening their mouth to gulp a large quantity of water or swimming with their mouth open to filter out seawater.
Meanwhile, the toothed variety of whales use their teeth to eat squid, octopus, and different types of fish. A kind of whale called Humpback creates a reserve of body fat and can go on without eating for up to a year. Also, Narwhal whales develop a tusk from their teeth, which they use to detect changes in the ocean water.
All toothed whales have massive tissue in their heads that helps them communicate (with other whales) and echolocation, which detects objects based on the reflection of sounds.
One of the oddest species is the Sperm whale, which has the largest brain of any animal on this planet. That makes them so much more intelligent than humans. They also have enormous teeth compared to other animals. If you combine that with their smarts, it makes them dangerous. They sleep standing up while dangling their tails downwards in the water and only switch half of their brain off. Their heads secrete a unique oil, which they use to detect the location of objects based on sounds.
Speaking of heads, the Bowhead whales have massive, thick blubber heads, which they use to break ice. They often use their heads to crack open sea ice from below whenever they want to come up to take a breather. When they’re under the ice during the polar winter in the Antarctic Ocean, they are creative singers who tend to sing diverse songs loudly.
The female whales typically remain pregnant for over a year and give birth to young whales. After that, those young whales feed on the fat-rich milk of mother whales for about six months.
The average lifespan of a whale ranges from 20 to 100 years. A particular baleen whale can live as long as 200 years. And out of all migrating mammals, whales have the most extended migration range – from warm to cold water areas. While that happens regularly, a majority of whales in the Atlantic oceans have caught themselves in massive nets and fishing gear at least once in their lifetime. Various killer whales, called Orca, travel in groups when they migrate.
Today, Orcas are an endangered species. Humans have always hunted whales for their food resources, the rich whale oil and baleen, and essentially for keratin in cosmetics. While whale hunting is discouraged and even prohibited in certain regions, some still occur only on special permits.