"with the highest concentration of krill, sometimes eating up to of krill in a single day. The daily energy requirement of an adult blue whale is in the region of . Their feeding habits are seasonal. Blue whales gorge on krill in the rich waters of the Antarctic before migrating to their breeding grounds in the warmer, less-rich waters nearer the equator. The blue whale can take in up to 90 times as much energy as it expends, allowing it to build up considerable energy reserves. Because krill move, blue whales typically feed at depths of more than during the"
"of . Blue whales feed almost exclusively on krill, though they also take small numbers of copepods. The species of this zooplankton eaten by blue whales varies from ocean to ocean. In the North Atlantic, ""Meganyctiphanes norvegica"", ""Thysanoessa raschii"", ""Thysanoessa inermis"" and ""Thysanoessa longicaudata"" are the usual food; in the North Pacific, ""Euphausia pacifica"", ""Thysanoessa inermis"", ""Thysanoessa longipes"", ""Thysanoessa spinifera"", ""Nyctiphanes simplex"" and ""Nematoscelis megalops""; and in the Southern Hemisphere, ""Euphausia superba"", ""Euphausia crystallorophias"", ""Euphausia valentini"", and ""Nyctiphanes australis"". An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill in a day. The whales always feed in the areas"
"tiny crustaceans that are the most numerous animals on Earth. Other types of zooplankton include jelly fish and the larvae of fish, marine worms, starfish, and other marine organisms"". In turn, the zooplankton are eaten by filter-feeding animals, including some seabirds, small forage fish like herrings and sardines, whale sharks, manta rays, and the largest animal in the world, the blue whale. Yet again, moving up the foodchain, the small forage fish are in turn eaten by larger predators, such as tuna, marlin, sharks, large squid, seabirds, dolphins, and toothed whales. The deep sea starts at the aphotic zone, the"
"Blue whale The blue whale (""Balaenoptera musculus"") is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale parvorder, Mysticeti. At up to in length and with a maximum recorded weight of , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. There are at least three distinct subspecies: ""B. m. musculus"" of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, ""B. m. intermedia"" of the Southern Ocean and ""B. m. brevicauda"" (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and"
"of its life, a blue whale calf drinks approximately of milk every day. Blue whale calves gain weight quickly, as much as every 24 hours. Even at birth, they weigh up to —the same as a fully grown hippopotamus. Blue whales have proportionally small brains, only about , about 0.007% of its body weight, although with a highly convoluted cerebral cortex. The blue whale penis is the largest penis of any living organism and also set the Guinness World Record as the longest of any animal's. The reported average length varies but is usually mentioned to have an average length"
"to exist in real life, due to metabolic and energy constraints. Due to its large size, several organs of the blue whale are the largest in the animal kingdom. A blue whale's tongue weighs around and, when fully expanded, its mouth is large enough to hold up to of food and water. Despite the size of its mouth, the dimensions of its throat are such that a blue whale cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball. The heart of an average sized blue whale weighs and is the largest known in any animal. During the first seven months"
"day and only surface-feed at night. Dive times are typically 10 minutes when feeding, though dives of up to 21 minutes are possible. The whale feeds by lunging forward at groups of krill, taking the animals and a large quantity of water into its mouth. The water is then squeezed out through the baleen plates by pressure from the ventral pouch and tongue. Once the mouth is clear of water, the remaining krill, unable to pass through the plates, are swallowed. The blue whale also incidentally consumes small fish, crustaceans and squid caught up with krill. Mating starts in late"
"Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales). Whales are creatures of the open ocean; they feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea. So extreme is their adaptation to life underwater that they are unable to survive on land. Whales range in size from the and dwarf sperm whale to the and blue whale, which is the largest creature that has ever lived. The sperm whale is the largest toothed predator on earth. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the females are larger"
"been estimated that nearly two million marine species are yet to be documented. Marine species range in size from the microscopic, including plankton and phytoplankton which can be as small as 0.02 micrometres, to huge cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) including the blue whale, the largest known animal reaching up to 33 metres (109 feet) in length. Marine microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses, constitute more than 90% of the total marine biomass. There is no life without water, which has been characterised as the ""solvent of life"". The Nobel prize winner Albert Szent-Györgyi referred to water as the ""mater und"
"not known how long traveling pairs stay together. In locations where there is a high concentration of food, as many as 50 blue whales have been seen scattered over a small area. They do not form the large, close-knit groups seen in other baleen species. The blue whale is the largest animal known to have ever lived. Blue whales are difficult to weigh because of their size. They were never weighed whole, but cut into blocks across and weighed by parts. This caused a considerable loss of blood and body fluids, estimated to be about 6% of the total weight."
"include the blue whale, the world's largest animal, as well as the Eden's, Omura's, Bryde's, common minke, fin, sei, and humpback whale. There had been an endemic, resident population of fin whales in Yellow and Bohai Sea to East China Sea historically. Minke whales are also resident in the same regions. Bryde's whales were considered to be historical residents along Taiwan and southern coasts. In Chinese EEZ, critically endangered North Pacific right whales and western gray whales had been sighted in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea only on prior to 1970s especially for right whales while there had"
"as having come off looking like a ""buffoon"". The largest whales—baleen whales, a group which includes the blue whale—eat plankton and ""it is commonly said that this species would be choked if it attempted to swallow a herring."" As for the whale shark, Dr. E. W. Gudger, an Honorary Associate in Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, notes that, while the whale shark does have a large mouth, its throat is only four inches wide, with a sharp elbow or bend behind the opening, meaning that not even a human arm would be able to pass through it."
"including salt water, hydrothermal vents, fresh water, hot springs, swamps, forests, pastures, deserts, air, and the interiors of animals, plants, fungi and rocks. Animals are however not particularly heat tolerant; very few of them can survive at constant temperatures above . Only very few species of animals (mostly nematodes) inhabit the most extreme cold deserts of continental Antarctica. The blue whale (""Balaenoptera musculus"") is the largest animal that has ever lived, weighing up to 190 metric tonnes and measuring up to long. The largest extant terrestrial animal is the African bush elephant (""Loxodonta africana""), weighing up to 12.25 tonnes and"
"by crawling up the target's nose and eating the targets' brain. Most attacks happen in moist areas like ponds or lakes. In the middle is the blowfish (""fugu"") that can kill animals with its toxic organs that contain tetrodotoxin. The largest animal killer is the blue whale, which is the largest animal on Earth. The blue whale mostly feeds on krill (""euphausiacea"") which is a small, abundant crustacean. Blue whales are almost entirely killed by killer whales and by humans. Chimpanzees wage war against rival groups, killing rival males and eating the baby chimps. Ants also wage warfare on other"
"four toothed whales. The largest of these, the blue whale (""Balaenoptera musculus""), grows to long weighing 84 tonnes. Many of these species are migratory, and travel to tropical waters during the Antarctic winter. Five species of krill, small free-swimming crustaceans, have been found in the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic krill (""Euphausia superba"") is one of the most abundant animal species on earth, with a biomass of around 500 million tonnes. Each individual is long and weighs over . The swarms that form can stretch for kilometres, with up to 30,000 individuals per , turning the water red. Swarms usually remain"
"South Pacific Ocean. ""B. m. indica"", found in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill. Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, in at least five groups. The IUCN estimates that there are probably between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales worldwide"
"Some whales lunge feed on bait balls. Lunge feeding is an extreme feeding method, where the whale accelerates from below the bait ball to a high velocity and then opens its mouth to a large gape angle. This generates the water pressure required to expand its mouth and engulf and filter a huge amount of water and fish. Lunge feeding by rorquals, a family of huge baleen whales that includes the blue whale, is said to be the largest biomechanical event on Earth. Adult herring are harvested for their flesh and eggs, and they are often used as baitfish. The"
"one of the largest and oldest clonal colonies on Earth. Among animals, the largest species are all marine mammals, specifically whales. The blue whale is believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived. The largest land animal classification is also dominated by mammals, with the African bush elephant being the most massive of these. The largest single-stem tree by wood volume and mass is the giant sequoia (""Sequoiadendron giganteum""), native to Sierra Nevada and California; it typically grows to a height of and in diameter. Multiple-stem trees such as banyan can be enormous. Thimmamma Marrimanu in India spreads"
"single female, suggesting that sperm competition is an important factor in mating behavior. Although the blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, the testes of the right whale are actually ten times larger than those of the blue whale – with each weighing up to , they are by far the largest of any animal on Earth. Gestation tends to last a year, and calves are born at in weight and in length. Weaning occurs after eight months. Right whales were a preferred target for whalers because of their docile nature, their slow surface-skimming feeding behaviors, their tendency"
"are larger (70 to 80 mm) than the initial phase males (60 mm). The bluehead wrasse forages for zooplankton, mollusks, and other small crustaceans, as well as parasites on other fish. Initial phase males eat primarily zooplankton from currents, and females and initial phase males have certain hunting times during the day. Though bluehead wrasses are common cleaner fish in the coral reefs they inhabit, they avoid cleaning piscivores such as the spotted moray, the graysby, and the red hind. Such species will view them as prey, but will not view gobies, another kind of cleaner fish, as prey. Other"
"15 species. The extinct ancestors of modern whales are the Archaeoceti. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, molecular evidence supports them as a relative of Artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates). Cetaceans belong to the order Cetartiodactyla (formed by combining Cetacea + Artiodactyla) and their closest living relatives are hippopotamuses and other hoofed mammals (camels, pigs, and ruminants), having diverged about 50 million years ago. Cetaceans range in size from the and Maui's dolphin to the and blue whale, which is also the largest animal ever known to have existed. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism. They have streamlined bodies"
"components depends on each species’ body size. While the biggest species ""Ch. diaphanus"" consumes organisms in the size class of about 0.3–3 mm, which mostly contains zooplankton (rotifers, water fleas etc.), ""Ch. limnaei"" e.g. selects organisms in the order of 0.03-0.3 mm, which are mainly algae (diatoms and green algae) or very small zooplankton. In principle, all species are therefore omnivores, the bigger species taking in mainly animal food and the smaller ones rather plant particles. The unselective nature of their feeding is clearly shown by the fact that sand grains and other indigestible particles (e.g. conifer pollen) are always"
"blue whale – has earned it the status of one of the longest known animals in the world. As coldwater species, these jellyfish cannot cope with warmer waters. The jellyfish are pelagic for most of their lives but tend to settle in shallow, sheltered bays towards the end of their one-year lifespan. In the open ocean, lion's mane jellyfish act as floating oases for certain species, such as shrimp, medusafish, butterfish, harvestfish, and juvenile prowfish, providing both a reliable source of food and protection from predators . Predators of the lion's mane jellyfish include seabirds, larger fish such as ocean"
"Rorqual Rorquals (Balaenopteridae) are the largest group of baleen whales, a family with nine extant species in two genera. They include what is believed to be the largest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach , and the fin whale, which reaches ; even the smallest of the group, the northern minke whale, reaches . Rorquals take their name from French ', which derives from the Norwegian word ', meaning ""rorqual-whale"" (the first element ""røyr"" originated from the Old Norse name for this type of whale, ""reyðr"", probably related to the Norse word for ""red""). The"
"Whale shark The whale shark (""Rhincodon typus"") is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of and a weight of about . The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate. It is the sole member of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family Rhincodontidae which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. Before 1984 it was classified as ""Rhiniodon"" into Rhinodontidae. The whale shark is found in open"
"and predatory. Odontocetes, as a whole, mostly feed on fish and cephalopods, and then followed by crustaceans and bivalves. All species are generalist and opportunistic feeders. Mysticetes, as a whole, mostly feed on krill and plankton, followed by crustaceans and other invertebrates. A few are specialists. Examples include the blue whale, which eats almost exclusively krill, the minke whale, which eats mainly schooling fish, the sperm whale, which specialize on squid, and the grey whale which feed on bottom-dwelling invertebrates. The elaborate baleen ""teeth"" of filter-feeding species, mysticetes, allow them to remove water before they swallow their planktonic food by"
"group survived. New fossil finds have been found in the Cretaceous rocks of Gondwana. Today, the 5,500 species of living synapsids, known as the mammals, include both aquatic (whales) and flying (bats) species, and the largest animal ever known to have existed (the blue whale). Humans are synapsids, as well. Most mammals are viviparous and give birth to live young rather than laying eggs with the exception being the monotremes. Triassic and Jurassic ancestors of living mammals, along with their close relatives, had high metabolic rates. This meant consuming food (generally thought to be insects) in much greater quantity. To"
"weight daily, or as much as 227 kg (500 lb) of food for a six-ton male. Their diet in the wild depends on what is available, and may include fish, walruses, seals, sea lions, penguins, squid, sea turtles, sharks and whales. According to SeaWorld, each of their adult orcas receives 140 to 240 pounds of food per day, primarily herring, capelin, salmon and mackerel. To maintain their alertness, the killer whales are fed at sporadic intervals throughout the day (as would happen in the wild) and feeding is often combined with training and shows. Each batch of fish is carefully"
"photosynthetic unicellular and multicellular protists that are related to land plants. The thallus of the unicellular mermaid's wineglass, ""Acetabularia"", can grow to several inches (perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 m) in length. The fronds of the similarly unicellular, and invasive ""Caulerpa taxifolia"" can grow up to a foot (0.3 m) long. A member of the order Cetacea, the blue whale (""Balaenoptera musculus""), is thought to be the largest animal ever to have lived. The maximum recorded weight was 190 metric tonnes for a specimen measuring , whereas longer ones, up to , have been recorded but not weighed. The African bush"
"small planktonic animals and plants. They get their nutrients from filtering silt and detritus. As a bottom-feeder, it does not have very much competition, so its main worry is predation. It is typically preyed on by larger carnivorous fish such as northern pike, muskellunge, walleye, and largemouth bass, but only in its juvenile stage. Their largest predators are humans, although some larger birds, such as great blue herons, have been known to eat them. They can be found in large rivers and reservoirs, with sand or silt bottoms in slower-moving currents. The young typically are found in small streams, or"
"human presence in general. Their diet includes cephalopods, fish, and birds. Octopus and arrow squid make up most of their cephalopod diet. Individuals located near their southern range limit have been known to eat penguins as part of their diet. Stomach contents have been analysed and shown to include anchovy, barracuda, flounder, hagfish, lamprey, red cod, school shark, and many other species. Further analysis of otoliths from their scat show that for fish prey species, lantern fish composed the majority of their fish diet, followed by anchovies, pink cod, and hoki. There are different factors that affect their diet, such"
"squid, stomatopods, and organisms from the family Diogenidae. The diet of the fish is also relative to its size. A smaller fish's diet typically consists of clupeiforms, and larvae, while the larger fish mostly eat ""Maurolicus muelleri"". The typical diet is very similar to that of the king mackerel because the fish are of a similar size and live in the same area of the water column. It mostly feeds on pelagic fish. The little tunny is an opportunistic predator, feeding on crustaceans, clupeid fishes, squids, and tunicates. Its diet also responds to seasonal changes in food availability. It has"
"most part herbivores, with some of them being grazers. However, there are exceptions to this as pigs, peccaries, hippos and duikers are known to have an omnivorous diet. Some cetaceans are the only modern ungulates that are carnivores; baleen whales consume significantly smaller animals in relation to their body size, such as small species of fish and krill; toothed whales, depending on the species, can consume a wide range of species: squid, fish, sharks, and other species of mammals such as seals and other whales. In terms of ecosystem ungulates have colonized all corners of the planet, from mountains to"