Gray whale short description. Gray whale: interesting facts. Lifestyle. Food

Whales are the giants of the seas and oceans! Their diversity is great, but, alas, the number depends on the person. The gray whale (the second name is the California whale) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales.

Today, the only species of gray whales lives on Earth ( Latin name species - Eschrichtiidae).

What does a gray whale look like

The body of a gray whale is 12 meters long. Its weight exceeds 13 tons. The female whales are only slightly smaller than the males.

Usually gray whales are under water for no more than 4 minutes in a row. However, when necessary, they can stay in the depths of the water for more than 18 minutes. The average speed of movement of whales does not exceed 10 km/h. When you have to hide from enemies, the whale can swim at a speed of 18 km / h.

Where does the gray whale live?

Gray whales are distinguished by the fact that they make rather long migrations. Usually their migration path exceeds 19 thousand kilometers.

Throughout the summer, gray whales are in the northern part of the world. In summer they live in the Bering and Chukchi seas. Here they find a large amount of nutritious plankton, accumulating the fat they need so much for the upcoming trip to the coast of Mexico.

During the migration period, gray whales swim at a speed of just over 10 km / h. It is with this speed that they overcome all 19 thousand kilometers of their migration path. This takes approximately 3 months. All this time, the whale lives off the previously accumulated fat reserves.

During migration, gray whales swim alone or gather in small groups (no more than 12 per group). And while feeding, they can gather in flocks of up to one and a half hundred.

Distinctive features of gray whales

The gray whale is one of the few mammals that have managed to save largest number traits that distinguished their distant ancestors. This is most noticeable in the structure of the skeleton. It has a movable head, large pelvic bones, very large nostrils, a fairly long neck with separate vertebrae. cervical region spine.

Gray whales are also distinguished by the presence of a smooth belly with several deep furrows near the whale's throat. These grooves diverge backwards at a small angle. The laterally compressed head is usually 4 times smaller than the body of a mammal.

The head of a mammal is divided along a horizontal line by the whale's large mouth. His jaws are very strong and massive. They are symmetrical, barely noticeable hairs - vibrissae, reminiscent of the ancient origin of this mammal.

There is no fin on the back of gray whales. But there is a small hump, behind which there are about a dozen tubercles towards the upper keel of the tail, which also has small bulges on each of the sides.

The body color of the mammal is gray-brown with a large number of spots with different shades of gray. On the body of gray whales there are a large number of barnacles. Their presence explains the appearance of the aforementioned spots on the whale's body.

What does the gray whale eat

The gray whale prefers to feed on silt and algae in shallow water. Thanks to its powerful straining apparatus, the entry of stones and other inedible objects into the mouth does not cause any harm to the mammal.

How does the gray whale reproduce?

These whales mate and breed in the shallow waters of Baja California. Some time before the birth of the calf, the females are the first to swim in the lagoons.

During the first 8-8 months after birth, the female feeds her young cub with the fattest milk. Its fat content is more than 53%. Whales are in the lagoons for 3 months (from January to March). During this time, young whales manage to acquire a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. It will be very necessary for the cubs during their migration to the northern waters of the Arctic.

Throughout the entire time of calf rearing, female gray whales remain very aggressive. Often they prefer to attack first, seeing the danger.

Enemies in nature

More dangerous enemies of gray whales -. To escape from them, the whales swim to the very shore and wait for the predators to swim away.

The gray whale or California whale is one of the most ancient species of mammals, whose residence time is about 30 million years on Earth.

These animals are quite well known for humans, since they live in coastal waters almost all their lives.

They belong to the order of baleen whales and are the only representative of the species of the gray family.

Appearance

Adult whales reach a length of up to 15 m, but in males the dimensions are slightly smaller - from 11 to 14.6 m. A massive body weighs from 15 to 35 tons. Head with a massive skull, occupies approximately 20% of the length of the entire body. The marine inhabitant does not have a dorsal fin, instead of it there is a small tubercle on the back, but there are four pectoral fins.

On the throat there are several openings 2 to 4 m long and about 5 m deep, which stretch during the meal, increasing the oral cavity. There are plates on the baleen, approximately 180 pieces on each side, white or pale - yellow color. The length of one plate is 30 cm.

Habitat

The main habitat of whales is the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, namely the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Chukchi Sea - the coasts of Korea, Japan and Mexico. Namely, a favorite place - the coast, they prefer a shallow depth. Whales constantly migrate from north to south.

Almost until the 18th century, they lived in the Atlantic Ocean, an ideal place for them, but over time, the animals disappeared due to the development of whaling.

Whales are very big travelers, so they were met in the most unexpected places where they do not live. One of the two herd lives between the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and South Korea, and the second - between California and Alaska, where the number of individuals reaches 20 thousand.

Lifestyle. Food

When ice comes from the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, where whales live, somewhere in the middle of autumn, they move south. The California species most often loves Mexican warm waters in the Gulf of California. Often these animals can be seen near the shore, which is very attractive for tourists watching them.

When animals migrate, they prefer loneliness, and gather in large groups in feeding places, and their number reaches 150 whales.

Whales have mastered bottom feeding very well, therefore, descending to a depth of 15 - 60 meters, they scoop up organisms with their mouths, along with water, pebbles, stones and everything that is on the seabed. Such hunting leaves many scars and small cuts on the jaw, and sometimes causes blinding of the right eye.

The whale's diet includes more than 60 species of marine life - these are molluscs, crustaceans, sponges, as well as small fish, but they can also eat brown algae. Inedible in the process is pushed out of the mouth with the tongue, and the crustaceans remaining on the whalebone are licked off and enter the stomach.

A young individual of this species eats about 120 kg, and adults - about 550 kg of living creatures in 12 hours. During the migration period, in places where they stop for the winter, they feed subcutaneous fat while losing up to a third of your body weight.

reproduction

The puberty of a whale occurs after 8 years of life. For mating, adults go south along the coast, swimming more than 100 km per day. Warm bays are more favorable for reproduction. The mating season lasts from late November - early December to March.

A whale's pregnancy lasts about a year. Females, for safety and protection from sharks, swim closer to the shore, in shallow water. The cub appears 3-5 meters in length and weighs 700-800 kg. The female feeds the baby for 7 months, after which its size increases to 7 meters. Protecting the cub, she can rush to the boat passing by.

• gray whales are one of the oldest species of mammals, the existence of which is more than 25 million years old;
• due to migratory periods, whales swim approximately 15 - 19 thousand km a year, but for his entire life, this distance is equal to the path from the moon to the earth and back;
• whales often suffer from oil releases into open waters, which affects the taste of their meat. "Phenol whales" were reported by whalers in Kamchatka in 2009;
• among these mammals, as well as in humans, there is a working right or left side. This can be determined by the most worn side of the jaw, with which he captures food during the hunt;
• the species of gray whale is included in the International Red List;
• every 2-3 seconds, a gray whale releases a fountain to a height of up to three meters.

Results

• the main habitat is the northern part of the Pacific Ocean;
• belong to the class of mammals and species of gray whales; - this is one of the animal species that have mastered bottom feeding;
• body weight can reach 40 tons, and length - 15 meters, but such a massive body does not prevent them from moving freely over long distances;
• Adults reach sexual maturity at 8 years of age. The mating season lasts about three months, and the bearing of the cub is about 1 year. Immediately after birth, a new mating occurs;
• the color of babies is much darker than adult whales;
• All their lives, whales suffer from skin lice, which cause them discomfort and pain, escaping from them only periodically sailing into fresh water lagoons.

Lifespan of a gray whale

In the wild, the gray whale lives for about 40 years.

• Class - Mammals
• Order - Cetaceans
• Family - Gray whales
• Genus - Gray whale
• View - Gray whale

Eschrichtius gibbosus Erxleben, 1777

Spreading: Gray whales live only in sowing. half of the Pacific Ocean from the Chukchi and Okhotsk Seas to the coasts of Japan, Korea and Mexico (in the south to 20-30 ° N). There are 2 populations: the Chukchi-Californian (American), which winters in the waters of Mexico and California, and fattens in the summer in the Chukchi, Beaufort and Bering Seas, and the Okhotsk-Korean (Asian), which winters in the waters of Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and fat fattening in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In the waters of Russia there are gray whales of both populations. Individuals of the American population stay along the shallow shores of Chukotka (on the west to the East Siberian Sea), the Asian population - in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Sea of ​​Japan. Whales of the Asiatic population winter and breed in the south. parts of the Sea of ​​Japan and in the waters of the South. Korea, migrate along the sowing for the summer. parts of Primorye to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Animals of the American population breed in the winter (January-February) in the waters of Baja California. In the past, there was another population in the North. Atlantic, breeding in the Baltic Sea, but it died out in the 17th century. . On the shores of Europe, 7 semi-fossil whales of this population were found, on the shores of the USA - 9.

Habitat: The habitats of gray whales are located along the coast in shallow water areas. They feed on benthic organisms at depths of 5-50 m, scooping them up together with silty masses and filtering them through a very rough and hard filtering apparatus. After gray whales feed, numerous feeding pits remain at the bottom, 2.5 m long, 1.5 m wide and 0.1 m deep. One gray whale leaves up to 6 digging holes at the bottom in one dive. A young animal (6 m long) ate 116 kg of amphipods in 12 hours, and an adult (12 m long) - 552 kg. In the stomachs of gray whales in the waters of Chukotka, 70 species of invertebrates were found, including 25 amphipods, 5 decapods, 15 bivalves and gastropods, 7 polychaete worms, 4 ascidians, and only 1 species of fish - gerbils. In the period from June to October 1980, 2 genera of amphipods - Ampeliscus and Pontoporea - dominated in their diet. Sexual maturity is reached at 5-6 years. The cub is born after a one-year pregnancy, the lactation period lasts six months. The average length of a newborn is 4.6 m. By the end of milk feeding, it grows to 7 m, after which growth slows down and by the year it reaches 8 m, and by 2 years - 9 m. The parental instinct is highly developed: when the cub is in danger, the female even rushes to the boat with people. The annual offspring in the Chukchi-California herd reaches 18%, nevertheless, the mortality of newborns is quite high: the cubs die in the nets of local fishermen, due to drying on land and the loss of their nursing queens. There are places in Russian waters where summer period young animals and lactating females take refuge in shallow lagoons-shelters between Cape Navrin and Cape Rubikon.

Security: Listed on the IUCN-96 Red List, Appendix 1 of CITES. It has been under the protection of the International Whaling Convention since 1946. Protected in Scammon Lagoon, the main breeding ground for gray whales. It is necessary to create "quiet zones" for the Okhotsk-Korean population, where tourism, fishing and shipping would be sharply limited. This applies primarily to breeding areas that must be declared protected. It is expedient to organize two marine seasonal reserves in the north. parts of Okhotsk and in the south. parts of the Seas of Japan.

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 upon a time, this whale could well live on land: modern views retained signs of terrestrial existence. First of all, these are enlarged pelvic bones, the length of the cervical spine, a movable head, and large nasal bones that are uncharacteristic of marine inhabitants.

The size and coloration 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 somewhat smaller - their maximum size 14.6 m. It is clear that with such dimensions they also weigh quite a lot - from 15 to 35 tons.

Interestingly, 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 gray, hence the name.

A whale fish from a fairy tale

In Pyotr Ershov's fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse" this inhabitant of the depths is presented as a "whale-fish miracle Yudo". 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 slender, the back is arched, and the short head is flattened from the sides. In place of the dorsal fin there is only a small hump, short and wide dorsal fins. That is, outwardly, the gray whale is quite similar to unreal-sized fish. So it is not surprising that these marine inhabitants, splashing in shallow waters, misled our ancestors.

The huge size and external similarity impressed people so much that they did not immediately notice the main difference in the pattern of movement. Fish make body movements in the horizontal plane, wagging their tail from side to side, and the tail and body of the animal move in the vertical plane. At one time, scientists very surprised the public by declaring whales to be mammals, and today every schoolchild knows this.

Albinos in the ocean: is it true that you can see them

It cannot be said that the gray whale is a numerous species. And albinos among them are generally such a rarity that a whole 7 years have passed between the last (2016) and the penultimate (2009) known case.

Lucky for 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 30,000-40,000 head. But by the beginning of the 20th century, it was already in danger of 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 exceptionally organized predators and hunt only in an organized flock, otherwise such prey as a gray whale is too tough for them.

The Red Book is designed to save these animals from another enemy - humans. Indeed, because of their habitat in the coastal strip, they are vulnerable. A huge and very promising achievement in terms of their protection is the permission to mine off the coast of Chukotka only for small indigenous peoples and only for their own needs.

Tireless travelers. How are they?

Gray whales are inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean, more precisely, its northern part. Two populations are known: the Okhotsk-Korean and the Chukchi-Californian. The names of the ranges are double, because these mammals live in one place, then in another.

It is believed that the gray whale makes the longest seasonal migrations. Traveling to the place of reproduction or fattening, these giants orient themselves in a very interesting way: vertically sticking their heads out of the water, they look around, determining their position relative to the shore along which they move. And by the way, they move slowly, swimming only 10 km per hour, and in a dangerous situation accelerating to 18 km/h.

The first named population winters and breeds in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk near the coast of South Korea, and in the summer fattens on the northeastern shelf of Sakhalin. Unfortunately, this herd is small, about 250 individuals.

The second (American) population goes to the Gulf of California for the winter. Offspring appear there, and for the future the whole herd is fattened in the Bering and Chukchi seas, occasionally looking also into the East Siberian. This herd is already as many as 26,000 heads, and although it is slowly, it is obviously recovering.

Gray whale: interesting facts about the marine life

And now some interesting facts. With their help, you will once 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, everything is absolutely logical: if they are mammals, then the dominant hemisphere of their brain may well determine their so-called right-handedness and left-handedness. True, in the case of whales, this is recognized by the abrasions on the left or right on the muzzle: where there are more of them, on the other side they dig silt at the bottom of the sea, getting food. There are not very many left-handers, most of them are right-handers.

If there are those who wish, then the whales can be fingerprinted. More precisely, “tailoscopy”: the pattern of the tail of each animal is individual, like the 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 can stay on the coast at low tide without harm. They dry up and then swim away safely at high 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 you understand how defenseless and vulnerable this powerful animal is and how much our world will lose if it loses gray whales.

Gray whales have many signs of their distant ancestors. There are over 200 hairs on their head. The head, unlike other whales, is very mobile. The gray whale differs sharply from other cetacean species. Every year it covers about ten thousand kilometers to reach the mating and breeding grounds and the same amount in the opposite direction - the longest migration among mammals.

The gray whale is big and agile!

The gray whale, unlike other whales, has not lost its close connection with the shore. It rarely moves more than one kilometer from the coast and rarely appears on the high seas. Currently, two individuals of gray whales live along the northern coast of the Pacific Ocean.

The year of the gray whale is divided into two periods - fattening and breeding season. The Okhotsk-Korean herd spend the summer months in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and winter and breed near Korea and off the coast of South Japan. Another herd winters near California, and spends the summer in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.

These animals feed on benthic crustaceans. During migration and wintering, they live from hand to mouth. It has been observed, however, that occasionally at this time they feed on algae. AT warm waters the female gives birth to a cub, with whom they return north to the feeding grounds. Whales are social animals that do not leave their wounded and sick comrades, helping them to stay on the surface.

Gray whale - Reproduction

Puberty after eight years.The mating period and birth of gray whales falls in the winter and takes place in warm Californian waters, South Japan and Korea. The female is usually courted by two males, with one of whom she mates. After mating, the animals return to the north, the pregnancy lasts from 11 months to a year. AT next year after returning to the south, the female gives birth to no more than one cub.

Births are usually taken by other females who help the newborn to the surface so that he takes his first breath. Newborn weighs from 650 to 800 kilograms, its length is from four to five meters. In the third month, its mass doubles. In a year its length is 8 meters, in 2 years it is about nine meters. For two months, the calf and mother live in warm waters, sailing north together. By the end of summer, the cub refuses mother's milk and begins an independent life.

What does the gray whale eat

In summer, the gray whale accumulates fat. They feed directly in their habitats. Whales absorb large quantities of crustaceans, soft-bodied animals and other inhabitants of the deep sea. At this time, they accumulate fat reserves, which should be enough to migrate south and reproduce.

The gray whale dives to the bottom of the sea at a shallow depth and lifts sediment from the seabed with its snout. Then he sucks up this muddy water containing sand and sea animals, monitors water and dirt, and the food settles on a large whalebone sieve.

The gray whale is protected by law!

The gray whale is the only member of the gray whale family.

Herds of gray whales: Okhotsk - Korean (currently almost exterminated, has about two hundred animals) and Chukchi-California (numbers about 17,000 individuals).

Since 1947, there has been a ban on ship fishing for gray whales.

Gray Whale - Interesting Facts