Blue Whale Habitat

Thanks to the various wildlife documentaries, sitting at our homes we can see animals that roam the wilderness of Africa or the deep rain forests of the Amazon. From what we see on the screen, we can only make out if the animals are 'big' or 'small'. When I first saw the blue whale on the screen, with just its head popping out of water releasing a white jet of water, all that I could make out of its size was that it definitely did not qualify as a 'small' animal. But when the commentator of the TV show said that the blue whale is the largest animal that ever walked on land or swam in the seas, I was pretty amused and the fact that it is a mammal, same as human beings filled my ten year old heart with a naive enthusiasm. This enthusiasm continued for a couple of years when I kept collecting various facts about this huge creature. Through this article, let me share with you all I learned about the blue whale under the broad categories of its habitat, its physical features and diet.

Classification
The scientific name of the blue whale is Balaenoptera musculus. It belongs to the

• Kingdom - Animalia
• Phylum - Chrodata
• Class - Mammalia
• Order - Catacea
• Family - Balaenopteridae
• Genus - Balaenoptera
• Species - Musculus

Habitat
The blue whale is a marine mammal that prefer the cold and temperate waters of the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. However, during the winter months, they are known to migrate to the waters of the Tropics and the Equator. They prefer the depths of the oceans than the shallow coastal waters. Till the dawn of the twentieth century, habitat of the blue whale covered all the oceans of the world. However, due to unchecked commercial whaling, they had been driven to near extinction by the 1960s. This explains why, despite laws banning their hunting and efforts of conservationists, this species is still endangered. Due to regulations on whaling, the Icelandic and Californian populations of blue whales are reported to have increased. According to the most recent statistics, the largest known concentration of these whales is the North East Pacific population that is commonly seen between Alaska and Costa Rica, but migrates to the Californian waters in the summer months. In the southern hemisphere, the species that are found are the B. m. intermedia (Antarctic Blue whale) and the B. m. brevicauda (Pygmy blue whale) of the Indian Ocean. Another subspecies B. m. indica, was identified in the mid nineteenth century. However, lack of distinct distinguishing features led to this group of mammals being merged within the B.m.brevicauda subspecies.

Physical Features
The answer to the question 'where do blue whales live' leaves all the oceans of the world for you to look for this sea mammal. But its their size that again comes to your help. These are the largest creatures that you can see anywhere on this planet. They can grow up to 80 to 105 feet long and weigh over 200 tons. With that massive size, the largest mammal on the earth stands taller and bigger than the T. Rex. In blue whale species, females are larger than the males. Although underwater it takes on a bluish hue, it is actually a mottles bluish gray color on the dorsal side and white on the ventral surface. It has a flat, U-shaped head and long, slender body that ends in a tail fluke.

Blue whales are baleen whales that are characterized by long keratinized plates called the baleen plates that hang down from their upper jaws. The baleen whales do not have teeth. Instead they have these plates that help them strain food - mostly krill which are small shrimp like animals from water. Among the different types of whales that can be called baleen whales, these whales belong to a group called the rorquals that have throat grooves or pleats that allow them to gulp huge amounts of sea water.

The blue whales originated from land animals that found better opportunities to survive in the water. They did thrive in the seas with hardly any natural predator, thanks to their size. However, callous hunting of the whales by human beings did pose a serious threat to their survival. With the present efforts to conserve the animal, we just hope that the blue whale habitat again spans to its original area of all the oceans and seas of the world.