Difference between revisions of "AY Honors/Species Account/Balaenoptera musculus"
JadeDragon (talk | contribs) (moved Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Species Account/Balaenoptera musculus to Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Species Account/Balaena mysticetus: correct latin name - wring whale) |
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| + | |common_name=The blue whale | ||
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| + | |latin_name=Balaenoptera musculus | ||
| + | |image= | ||
| + | |description= | ||
| + | At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 170 tonnes (190 short tons) or more in weight, the Blue Whale is the largest known animal ever to have existed. | ||
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| + | 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 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. | ||
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| + | |range=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 located in at least five groups. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere. | ||
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Revision as of 01:53, 15 May 2014
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
Where found: 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 located in at least five groups. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere.
Description: At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 170 tonnes (190 short tons) or more in weight, the Blue Whale is the largest known animal ever to have 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 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.
