smooth (real) whales - it's very heavy, clumsy and Big-mammals, furrowing the oceans of our planet.The name of their family due to the absence on the throat and belly bands and all kinds of grooves, making the body extremely smooth.Currently, a family of giants has a membership of two genera and four species.The largest of the whale family of smooth cetaceans giants - a harp.Consider these marine animals in more detail.
Systematics whales
Before the story, it is appropriate to list all members of the family.Especially since they are not so much.Zoologists divide these sea animals only two kinds.First - bowhead whales - is represented by one single view of the same name.Second - southern right whales - is represented by three species: the northern, southern, and Japanese.Curiously, born Greenland bowhead whales in the late Miocene and early Pleistocene has been presented by five different species.Their fossils have been found in North America and Europe.
family description
As mentioned above, the members of the family - the massive and clumsy giant with a huge head.The length of these animals can reach up to 18 and sometimes up to 22 meters.Their weight thus ranges from 30 to 100 tons.Basically, there are individuals in length of 15 meters.The body of these whales thick and smooth down.They have no longitudinal grooves and strips, for which have been allocated in the corresponding family.The fins of these animals are short, but wide, and the mouth is narrow, but high.
Where do they live?
representatives of the family of smooth giants live mainly in ocean waters, inhabiting the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.For example, the northern right whale inhabit the waters of the Atlantic.His kinsman Japanese can be found throughout the North Pacific.Southern view of cetaceans is widely distributed in cold and temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere.Close kit from the family of baleen whales - the Greenlandic polar - prefers the cold waters of the northern hemisphere.Its habitat is directly related with the available out there floating ice.
Lifestyle whales
Not long ago, zoologists finally figured out that the representatives of the families prefer to stay alone.Rarely do they get off in groups of 4-5 individuals, but no more.Groups of these whales are found in places with the greatest accumulation of food.Swim giants practically on the water surface.
Scientists describe the process of feeding whales as something fun and unusual: during their meal they float line up with wide-open mouths and like a vacuum cleaner, sucks in all sorts of crustaceans, plankton and other animals.Available thick layer of subcutaneous fat significantly worsens the heat transfer in the body of these creatures, so they never swim in the tropical waters.
baleen whales, like all other cetaceans - is viviparous mammals.In other words, not only do they give birth to live young already, but also feed them with milk!That's why a mistake to believe that the whales - a fish.Incidentally, whale milk is 10 times more nutritious cow.That is why small kityata grow very quickly.
King family
Greenlandic polar whale - the largest of all mammals represented family.As mentioned above, this is the only representative of the eponymous family.It belongs to the suborder of baleen whales.Currently, it is known that the maximum length of the body of this giant can reach 22 meters.At the same time females usually larger than males.The weight of these mammals varies from 80 to 150 tons.Bowhead whales - excellent divers.They can easily be immersed to a depth of 200 meters and stay there for up to 40 minutes.Average speed of movement of bowhead whales - 20 km / h.
Close kit from the family of smooth - the record for longevity among vertebrates.It is an average of 40 years, but this is not the limit.Scientists say that individual instances quite live up to 211 years!It is definitely a record!
How and what eats bowhead whale?
staple diet of these giants of plankton - their favorite food.Greenlandic polar whale prefers to eat small crustaceans animals (eg, copepods) and pteropods.Adult whales consume per day to 2 tons of plankton!The process of feeding of these animals is no different from the power of the suborder of baleen whales.This helps them to so-called baleen - congestion in the jaws of special hanging plates.One individual can be from 320 to 370 pieces.The length of each record - up to 4.5 meters.
Like all of his kind, a large kit from the family of smooth moves in the process of feeding with an open mouth in the water and cutting its powerful and massive body.It is like a giant vacuum cleaner, it sucks in everything that comes in his way.Here is where the works of its natural filter - whalebone.Crustaceans settle on giant plates of baleen, and then inevitably scraped tongue and swallowed.The finest structure of plates allows a mammal to filter krill, which because of their size, may not be available for other whales.
on the verge of extinction
representatives of the family of cetaceans animals were quite destroyed by man long before whaling improvement process.And all because the whales are easy to catch: they live in the upper water layers, kept near the coast.Furthermore, they are slow and cumbersome.Unfortunately, at present the number of these mammals is poor.For example, the southern right whale is represented by 7,000 individuals, and the north - 300 individuals.Japanese whales generally have no more than 200 individuals.
North and Japanese whales are listed as endangered as an endangered species.The population as their southern counterparts, fortunately, is gradually recovering.Such an increased interest in these giants is due to the convenience of their transportation.The fact that a large amount of fat does not whalers killed an animal plunge into the water - a mammal is drifting on the water surface.
