WHALES

• What Are They ?

Fish ??

Bird ??

Whales Are :• Whales are large, intelligent,

aquatic mammals. They breathe air through blowhole(s) into lungs (unlike fish who breathe using gills).

• They are the only mammals, other than manatees  (sea cows), that live their entire lives in the water, and the only mammals that have adapted to life in the open oceans.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Subclass: Eutheria

Order: CetaceaWhale (origin Old English hwæl)

Evolution Of Whles

• Primitive whales evolved during the mid-Eocene period, about 50 million years ago. Fossil remains indicate that whales evolved from hoofed land mammals - perhaps the shore-dwelling, hyena-like Mesonychid that returned, bit by bit, to the sea roughly 50 million years ago.

• All cetaceans, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, are descendants of land-living mammals of the Artiodactyl order

• Cetaceans include the whales, dolphins and porpoises.

• There are over 75 species of Cetaceans.• Whales belong to the order Cetacea (from the

Greek word "ketos" which means whale)

Toothed whales Baleen whales

• predators that sieve tiny crustaceans, small fish, and other tiny organisms from the water with baleen. Baleen is a comb-like structure that filters the baleen whales' food from the water. Baleen whales are larger than the toothed whales and have 2 blowholes (nostrils). There are 10 species of baleen whales

• predators that use their peg-like teeth to catch fish, squid, and marine mammals, swallowing them whole. They have one blowhole (nostril) and use echolocation to hunt. There are about 66 species of toothed whales.

Anatomy

Like all mammals, whales breathe air, are warm-blooded, nurse their young with milk from mammary glands, and have body hair

The smallest whale is the dwarf sperm whale which as an adult is only 8.5 feet (2.6 m) long.

• The Blue Whale has been the largest

animal that ever lived on Earth.

• The adult is 28-33 M long (98 ft )

SIZE

Special Structures

Blowhole(s)Features of a blue whaleWhales breathe via blowholes; baleen whales have two and toothed whales have one. These are located on the top of the head

Behavior

Sleep A humpback whale breaching.Unlike most animals, whales are conscious breathers. All mammals sleep, but whales cannot afford to become unconscious for long because they may drown. It is thought that only one hemisphere of the whale's brain sleeps at a time, so they rest but are never completely asleep

Feeding• Whales are generally classed as

predators, but their food ranges from microscopic plankton to very large animals.

• Toothed whales eat fish and squid which they hunt by use of echolocation. Killer whales sometimes eat other marine mammals, including whales.

• Baleen whales such as humpbacks and blues, when feeding in higher latitudes (such as the Southern Ocean), eat mostly krill. They imbibe enormous amounts of seawater which they expel through their baleen plates. The water is then expelled and the krill is retained on the plates and then swallowed.

•  Whales do not drink seawater but indirectly extract water from their food by metabolizing fat

SWIMMING AND OTHER WATER ACTIVITIES

Breaching: Many whales are very acrobatic, even breaching (jumping) high out of the water and then slapping the water as they come back down. Sometimes they twirl around while breaching. Breaching may be purely for play or may be used to loosen skin parasites or have some social meaning. 

Logging: Logging is when a whale lies still at the surface of the water, resting, with its tail hanging down. While floating motionless, part of the head, the dorsal fin or parts of the back are exposed at the surface. 

Spyhopping: This is another cetacean activity in which the whale pokes its head out of the water and turns around, perhaps to take a look around. 

Lobtailing: Some whales stick their tail out of the water into the air, swing it around, and then slap it on the water's surface; this is called lobtailing. It makes a very loud sound. The meaning or purpose of lobtailing is unknown, but may be done as a warning to the rest of the pod of danger. 

REPRODUCTION

     Young cetaceans are frequently mottled in color, camouflaging them from predators. Newborns have a sparse covering of hair which they lose as adults.

Cetaceans give birth to live young which are nourished with milk from their mothers - they don't lay eggs. Cetaceans breed seasonally, usually in warm tropical waters, and females usually have one calf every 1-3 years. The gestation times range from 9-18 months. Whale calves can swim at or soon after birth. Mother whales care for their young for an extended period of time, usually at least a year, feeding them milk and protecting them.

MIGRATION

• Many ceteaceans, especially baleen whales, migrate over very long distances each year. They travel, sometimes in groups (pods), from cold-water feeding grounds to warm-water breeding grounds.

• Gray whales make the longest seasonal migration of any of the whales. They travel about 12,500 miles each year.

WHALES SONGSComplex whales songs can be heard for miles under the water.• The humpback's song can last for 30

minutes.• Baleen whales sing low-frequency songs;

toothed whales emit whistles and clicks that they use for echolocation

•  The songs are thought to be used in attracting mates, to keep track of offspring, and for the toothed whales, to locate prey.

WHALES OF THE WORLD

• BELUGA WHALE

Amazing Whales …..

.

• The beluga or white whale  or sea canary ,Beluga means "white

one" in Russian ,  Its genus, Delphinapterus, means "whale without fins"

• They have one blowhole • They blow air bubbles …. Just for fun

• their unusual color makes them one of the most familiar and easily 

• They are social animals

HUMPBACK WHALES

GENTLE GIANTS OF THE SEA

• Blue Whales are the biggest animals ever known to man kind. They are even bigger then the dinosaurs.

• The Blue Whale eats zooplankton[Small crustaceans]

• The biggest Blue Whale ever to be caught was a female Blue Whale. It was 29 metres long and weighed more then 158 tonnes.

• Also, female Blue Whales are bigger then the males and their blood vessels are so big that you could swim in it.

BLUE WHALE

SPERM WHALE

WHALES VS HUMAN

HUMAN IS THE MAIN PREDATOR FOR THE WHALES

Uses of whale oil

Soap, shampoo, detergent, cooking fat, lipstick, margarine, ice cream, crayons, paint, polish, lino, lubricants & dynamite

Uses of baleen

riding crops, shoehorns,

umbrella ribs, brushes, watch springs,

shop shutters, fishing rods, fans, corsets and crinolines

Uses of whale meat

fertilizer,dog food,

animal feed.Only eaten in Iceland, Norway, Korea and Japan

Uses of whale tissues

Skin: bootlaces, bike saddles, handbags, shoes.Tendons: tennis racquets, surgical thread.Blood: sausages, fertilizer.Connective tissue: jelly, sweets & photo film

SAVE THE WHALES

WHALING

REFERENCES

• Carwardine, M. (2000). Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0751327816..

• Williams, Heathcote (1988). Whale Nation. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0517569329..

• http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/allabout/

BY: Salma Mohamed Abdelkhalek Al-anwar

3rd year Biotechnology Faculty Of Science Zoology Dept. – Benha University

Under the supervision of :

Dr / Hany A. Abdel-Salam

THANKS A LOT ^_^