Whales are mammals belonging to the cetacean group, along with dolphins, porpoises, sperm whales and zifios. However, unlike others, whales are mystical. This means that they do not have teeth, a characteristic that greatly affects their diet.
As you will see, whale feeding is based on very small animals, so they consume large amounts of them. Do you want to know who these enigmatic animals are? Read! In this article by Animal Expert we tell you what the whale eats.
- In biology.
- The term whale is used exclusively for the Balenid family.
- However.
- Familiarly.
- Many other cetaceans are known as whales:.
In this article, we will talk exclusively about “fin whales”, including whales. To learn more about this animal, we recommend reading the article about whale types.
Whale feeding is based on a filtration process. To do this, they have structures called fins that come out of the upper jaw (like our teeth). It is a series of fibers that can be compared to the hairs of a brush.
When they find food, these animals open their huge jaws and food and water enter their mouths. They then push their tongue against the palate, from the back to the mouth, while keeping the mouth almost closed. Thus, thanks to the presence of the fins, they make the water run, leaving the food trapped in the oral cavity. Finally, they ingest food and other residual substances that can exist in the ocean, such as plastics.
Now that we know a little more about how these animals feed, you’re probably wondering what whales eat. Although food depends on where you are, we can talk about a food that is very common to everyone: plankton. What exactly is it? We’ll see!
Plankton is a very small group of organisms that live suspended in water. Among them are:
The diet of whales is based on the last component, that is, they are carnivorous animals.
Zooplankton includes very small animals that feed on other plankton members. They are adult crustaceans, such as krill or copopods, and larvae of animals that, once developed, live on the seabed.
We call krill the tiny, generally transparent crustaceans that populate the world’s oceans. These animals form groups of thousands and thousands of individuals that can extend by miles. For this reason, they are the staple food of whales and many other marine predators.
Planctonic coppods are other crustaceans that play a key role in the aquatic food chain. These crustaceans can measure less than a millimeter and are also an essential food for whales and many other ocean animals.
In addition, zooplankton is found in the juvenile phases of certain fish and larvae of animals such as sponges, corals, echinomities, molluscs … All these animals become “independent” of plankton when they reach adulthood.
Among the foods of some whales, such as rorquais, there are many fish that form shoals. This allows sea giants to eat hundreds of fish in one bite.
What fish eat whales?
Some of the fish that are part of the whale’s diet are:
Finally, squid are also part of the feeding of some whales. For example, the world’s largest animal, the blue whale, tends to descend to the bottom of the ocean in search of squid banks.
Whales make large migrations in search of food. In summer, they migrate to cold waters, where food is plentiful. When the cold arrives and the amount of food decreases, they return to the warm waters, where they mate and reproduce.
This information allows you to know the best whale watching moments and places. Let’s look at some examples:
There are many other places where you can appreciate the magnificence of these cetaceans. However, we recommend that you do so consciously, with the least possible impact on your behavior and habitats.
If you want to read articles similar to What does the whale eat ?, we recommend that you visit our Balanced Diets section.
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Fernandez, M. L. (2015) Maxillipoda Class: Copepoda Subclass: Calanoida Order. IDE – SEA Magazine, 89, pp. 1-27. ISSN 2386-7183
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The 10 best places in the world to see whales. National Geographic Travel, March 2016.