Creature Feature Encyclopedia: Mammalia

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae

There are more than sixteen whale species, ranging in size from the nine-foot dolphin to the 100-foot blue whale. Whales have two ways of eating. Toothed whales use their teeth to catch fish and squid. Baleen whales, like this humpback, have a wall of bristly slats that grow from the upper jaw. After taking in large quantities of sea water and tiny organisms, they strain the liquid out through this baleen ahd swallow the tiny animals left behind. Humpbacks are found in all oceans, but migrate between polar waters in summer and tropical waters in winter. Almost 50 feet long, they commonly swim in groups of four to twelve. The Humpback emits long, ethereal songs which echo across entire ocean basins and can last for 20 minutes.

~A Swim through the Sea © 1994


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