[♪ INTRO] Hey there! Squeaks was just showing
me his imaginary sea monster that he drew based on some
sea monsters of the past! I think it’s great! I see that it has sharp teeth, big flippers, and an armored head, like the
animals we learned about before. And I see you drew a picture of
you swimming next to your monster! Your sea monster is HUGE! But even your imaginary sea
monster doesn’t look as big as the biggest biggest animal
that’s ever actually lived! Do you know what that animal is
, Squeaks? It’s a kind of whale called the blue
whale, and they’re still around today! Blue whales can get to be over 30 meters long, about as long as 3 school buses in a row. And, a blue whale’s tongue can
weigh as much as an elephant. And just its heart can be as heavy as a car! So, what do you think these
great big blue whales eat? Fish! That’s a great guess! And some whales, like beluga whales, do eat fish. They have sharp teeth that they
use to catch and eat their prey. But some whales,
like blue
whales, don’t have teeth at all! Weird, right? These whales have something
called baleen instead of teeth. Baleen is a bristly plate that is
stuck to the roof of the whale’s mouth. It looks like a big, bristly
broom inside their mouths! Oh, that’s a great question! How dooes it help them eat? Well, if you’ve ever seen someone cook pasta, they might have dumped it out
of the pot and into a strainer when the pasta was done cooking. Water pours out of the strainer,
but the food sta
ys inside. Baleen works kind of the same way. When a whale that has baleen
takes a gulp of water and food, they use their tongues to push all
the water out through the gaps, but keep the tasty food inside. But if they aren’t eating
fish, what are they eating? Blue whales eat tiny animals called krill! Krill are so small that we need
a microscope to see them clearly. That’s right, Squeaks! Something as big as a blue whale
does need to eat a lot of krill! And they do! Adult blue whales can ea
t
16 tons of krill each day. That’s as heavy as four elephants! Isn’t it amazing that such
a huge animal eats things that are so small that we can’t even see them?! Baby whales are called
calves, just like baby cows. And also like cows, whale calves
drink the milk that their mothers make inside their bodies until they’re
old enough to start eating krill. That’s because all whales,
including blue whales, are mammals. Mammals are animals like
horses, cows, dogs, and humans. And all mammals
feed their newborn babies milk. That’s one of the special things
that makes an animal a mammal! Yes, they do look more like a
fish than like the other mammals. But fish don’t feed their babies with milk, which helps us know that
whales and fish are different. And there’s another important
feature that tells us that whales are mammals and definitely not fish. Whales don’t have gills to
breathe in water, like fish do. They have lungs, just like us! So even though some whales can
hold their b
reath for over an hour, they have to come up to the surface of
the ocean to breathe every now and then. When we breathe, air goes through
our nose or mouth and into our lungs. Whales breathe using their lungs too,
but they do it in a very special way. They breathe in and out through a hole on
the top of their head called a blowhole. When a whale is ready to take a breath,
it comes up to the top of the water, opens its blowhole, and breathes out. This is called spouting. That air shoots up i
nto the sky,
sometimes about 12 meters high! That’s about as tall as six grown-ups
if they stood on each other’s shoulders. Then, the whale breathes fresh
air in through its blowhole, and goes back underwater. When a whale is underwater, they can pinch
their blowhole closed from the inside, and seal it shut so no water gets in. But my favorite thing about blue whales
are the amazing sounds they make. Blue whales, as well as
lots of other whale species, can talk to each other from really fa
r away! Sound travels really well in water,
so one whale can hear another whale making noises even if they’re
thousands of miles apart! Whales make lots of sounds,
including squeaks, whistles, and long low booming sounds
that scientists call “songs.” Here’s what a blue whale’s song sounds like. I think whale songs sound beautiful, too, Squeaks! Oh yeah. Squeaks says he still thinks
his imaginary sea monster is pretty cool, but it’s even cooler that there are giant
blue whales out in the oc
ean right now, singing to each other, eating microscopic
krill, and taking care of their babies! Thanks for joining me here at The Fort! I hope you loved learning about
our ocean mammal friends too. What was your favorite thing you got to discover? If you want to keep learning
and having fun with Squeaks, me, and all our other friends, be
sure to hit the subscribe button, and we'll see you next time on SciShow Kids! [♪ OUTRO]
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