What is a gray whale? This is an old-timer of our planet, one of the most ancient marine mammals. Scientists believe that he did not always plow the expanses of the ocean. Once this whale could well live on land: modern species have retained signs of terrestrial existence. First of all, these are enlarged pelvic bones, the length of the cervical spine, a moving head and large nasal bones uncharacteristic for marine inhabitants.
Sizes and colors of a beautiful marine mammal
In general, the gray whale is not the largest among its relatives. But still, its size impresses many. Adult females grow up to 17 m, and males are slightly smaller - their maximum size is 14.6 m. It is clear that with such sizes they also weigh quite a lot - from 15 to 35 tons.
It is interesting, but the color of the gray whale is not gray, but brown, protective, the color of rocks and silt, because he is a lover of shallow water. But the spots on his skin are just gray, hence the name.
The mentioned marks, by the way, cause animals a lot of concern. Since their origin is commonplace skin parasites, to which this species is more susceptible to others. To get rid of them, whales have to show the wonders of acrobatics and rub their bodies against the bottom, almost rolling from side to side.
Some large seabirds — polar terns and burgomaster seagulls — help sea residents cope with this problem. They arrange a feast, cleaning the backs of pop-up whales. If the seagulls do not cope, the sea giants have to swim in the lagoons, where fresh water destroys annoying parasites.
Fairy whale fish
In the tale of Peter Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse”, this inhabitant of the depths is presented as a “wonderful whale-fish-whale”. But the writer’s fantasy is not a biological fact. The facts are actually this: not only is the whale not a monster, it is also not a fish.
If this is appropriate in relation to such giants, then we can say that their body is quite harmonious, a curved back, a short head flattened from the sides. In place of the dorsal fin there is only a small hump, short and wide dorsal fins. That is, the outwardly gray whale is quite similar to the unrealistic size of the fish. So it is not surprising that these marine inhabitants, splashing in the shallow waters, misled our ancestors.
The sheer size and resemblance impressed people so much that they did not immediately notice the main difference in the movement pattern. Fish perform body movements in the horizontal plane, wagging the tail from side to side, and the tail and body of the animal move in the vertical plane. At one time, scientists were very surprised by the public, declaring the whales mammals, and today every schoolchild knows this.
Albinos in the ocean: is it true that they can be seen
This is not to say that the gray whale is a numerous species. And albinos among them are such a rarity in general that as much as 7 years elapsed between the last (2016) and penultimate (2009) known case.
Lucky biologists working on the Pacific coast of Mexico, they recorded the appearance of a female gray whale. It is assumed that this is a young mother.
Enemies and prospects of a marine mammal
Unfortunately, the number of these underwater giants is small. In the middle of the XIX century. California gray whales were not uncommon; the American population was 30000-40000 heads. But by the beginning of the 20th century, she was already threatened with extinction.
The main enemy of gray whales is killer whales. By the way, these are also whales, not so large, but toothy. Killer whales are exclusively organized predators and are hunted only by an organized flock, otherwise they can not catch such a prey as a gray whale.
The Red Book is designed to save these animals from another enemy - man. Indeed, because of the habitat in the coastal strip, they are vulnerable. A huge and very promising achievement in terms of their protection is the permission to extract from the coast of Chukotka only to small indigenous peoples and only for their own needs.
Tireless travelers. How are they?
Gray whales are the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, more precisely, its northern part. Two populations are known: Okhotsk-Korean and Chukchi-California. The names of the ranges are double, because these mammals live in one place, then in another.
It is believed that the gray whale performs the longest seasonal migrations. Traveling to the breeding place or fattening fat, these giants are very interesting to orient: vertically putting their heads out of the water, they look around, determining their position relative to the coast along which they move. And by the way, they move slowly, sailing only 10 km per hour, and in a dangerous situation accelerating to 18 km / h.
The first named population hibernates and breeds in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk off the coast of South Korea, and in the summer it feeds on the northeast shelf of Sakhalin. Unfortunately, this herd is small in number, about 250 individuals.
The second (American) population for the winter goes to the Gulf of California. Offspring appear there, and for the future the whole herd is fattened in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, occasionally peeking into the East Siberian as well. This herd is already as many as 26,000 goals, and although it is slowly, it is obviously recovering.
Gray whale: interesting facts about the marine life
And now some curious facts. With their help, you will again see how interesting the gray whale is. Information for children and adults will be equally useful.
It turns out that gray whales, like people, are right-handed and left-handed. At first it’s hard to believe, but if you think about it, then everything is absolutely logical: if they are mammals, then the dominant hemisphere of their brain may well determine their so-called right- and left-handedness. True, in the case of whales, this is recognized by abrasions on the left or right on the face: where there are more of them, on that side they dig silt at the bottom of the sea, getting food. Left-handed people are not very numerous, most are still right-handed.
If there are those who wish, then the whales can be fingerprinted. More precisely, “tailoscopy”: the tail pattern of each animal is individual, like papillary patterns of human fingers.
In just one year, a gray whale can swim up to 18,000 km.
And the most interesting thing is that only these mammals without harm can remain on the coast at low tide. They dry out, and then safely sail away at the time of the tide.
Conclusion
Now you know who the gray whale is. We hope that the information presented in the article was useful to you and helped to understand how defenseless and vulnerable this powerful animal is and how much our world will lose if it loses gray whales.