The blue whale, the world’s largest animal, can consume up to 16 tons of plankton daily, which has major implications for ocean health.
- 1 Do some whales eat plankton?
- 2 Do blue whales eat plankton or krill?
- 3 How much plankton does a blue whale eat?
- 4 What do blue whales eat?
- 5 Who eats plankton?
- 6 Do blue whales have any predators?
- 7 Do orcas eat blue whales?
- 8 Do blue whales eat sharks?
- 9 Can blue whale eat human?
- 10 Do blue whales eat anything besides krill?
- 11 Is krill a plankton?
- 12 Is blue whale vegetarian?
- 13 Why do blue whales only eat krill?
- 14 Do blue whales eat shrimp?
- 15 Do blue whales eat giant squid?
- 16 Has any animal ever killed an orca?
- 17 How big is Megalodon compared to a blue whale?
- 18 What animal is plankton from Spongebob?
- 19 Can blue whales defend themselves?
- 20 What animal eats a whale?
- 21 What is the largest plankton eating fish called?
- 22 What animal has no predator?
- 23 Do blue whales eat big fish?
- 24 Are blue whales friendly?
- 25 Do whales fart?
- 26 Who eats killer whales?
- 27 Can you survive inside a whale?
- 28 Has anyone survived inside a whale?
- 29 Are whales vegetarian?
- 30 Do orcas eat dolphins?
- 31 Are orcas friendly?
- 32 Is a blue whale’s heart?
- 33 Do whales eat sardines?
- 34 Why do whales eat plankton?
- 35 How do blue whales survive on plankton?
- 36 Why do whales not eat big fish?
- 37 Is a starfish a plankton?
- 38 What’s the difference between krill and plankton?
- 39 What animals feed on krill?
- 40 How big is a human compared to a blue whale?
- 41 Do blue whales have teeth?
- 42 Do orcas eat common prawns?
- 43 Do whales eat penguins?
- 44 Do whales eat jellyfish?
- 45 Is a Kraken bigger than a blue whale?
- 46 Can an octopus eat a whale?
- 47 Is a jellyfish bigger than a blue whale?
- 48 Who would win a megalodon or a killer whale?
- 49 Are sharks afraid of killer whales?
- 50 Do orcas protect humans from sharks?
- 51 What’s the biggest creature in the ocean?
- 52 Are blue whales bigger than dinosaurs?
- 53 Who would win megalodon vs Kraken?
- 54 How long do blue whales live?
Do some whales eat plankton?
Food Preferences and Resources
Right whales eat zooplankton (animal plankton). Their finely fringed baleen is able to strain from the water copepods (a type of small crustacean) and other small zooplankton. Krill (a family of small, shrimplike crustaceans) and copepods are major components of a right whale’s diet.
Do blue whales eat plankton or krill?
What do blue whales eat besides krill? They consume fish, plankton, and other tiny crustaceans (like copepods and amphipods) floating in the water.
How much plankton does a blue whale eat?
An average-sized blue whale will eat 2,000-9,000 pounds (900-4100 kg) of plankton each day during the summer feeding season in cold, arctic waters ( about 120 days).
What do blue whales eat?
About the Species. Blue whales are the largest animals ever to live on our planet. They feed almost exclusively on krill, straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates (which hang from the roof of the mouth and work like a sieve). Some of the biggest individuals may eat up to 6 tons of krill a day.
Who eats plankton?
Phytoplankton and algae form the bases of aquatic food webs. They are eaten by primary consumers like zooplankton, small fish, and crustaceans. Primary consumers are in turn eaten by fish, small sharks, corals, and baleen whales.
Do blue whales have any predators?
Orcas take down a blue whale, proving they’re the apex predators of the ocean. While killer whales are known to attack blue whales, John Totterdell and his colleagues are the first to ever document a successful takedown.
Do orcas eat blue whales?
Orcas, also known as killer whales despite being members of the same family as dolphins, are apex predators known to feed on nearly every species of large whale. But they typically go after calves rather than adults. This was the first time orcas had been observed successfully killing and eating an adult blue whale.
Do blue whales eat sharks?
Rare occurrences of cetaceans swallowing sharks
While it is likely that most cetaceans do not actively hunt sharks, in rare occurrences, sharks or their parts have been found in the stomach contents of certain cetacean species (other than killer whales).
Can blue whale eat human?
Despite occasional reports of whales scooping people into their mouths, it’s incredibly rare—and for all but one species, swallowing a human is physically impossible.
Do blue whales eat anything besides krill?
Rarely do blue whales eat anything besides krill, but when they do the food is usually crustacean species, including copepods and amphipods. Pelagic red crabs, Pleurocodes planipes, are also on the menu blue whales.
Is krill a plankton?
Are krill the same as plankton? Krill are plankton but not all plankton are krill! Plankton just means any small freshwater or marine organism that due to its size, immobility, or weakness cannot swim against the current, and exists in a state of drift. Plankton can be classified into two groups based on how it feeds.
Is blue whale vegetarian?
Why do blue whales only eat krill?
There is plenty of krill in the ocean. One of the main constraints to eating, for baleen whales, is to open their mouths wide enough to swallow massive amounts of krill-containing water.
Do blue whales eat shrimp?
Blue whales eat krill – tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans that live throughout Earth’s oceans. The huge whales can eat up to four tonnes of krill every day.
Do blue whales eat giant squid?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI42bKOlXNE
Has any animal ever killed an orca?
Orcas are apex predators, at the top of the food chain. No animals hunt orcas (except for humans).
How big is Megalodon compared to a blue whale?
Well, scientists guess that even the biggest Megalodon only reached a mere 58 feet (18 meters) (though some argue it was up to 82 feet [25 meters]). By contrast, the largest blue whales clock in at a little more than 100 feet (30 meters) long, and on average are between 75-90 feet (23-27 meters) in length.
What animal is plankton from Spongebob?
Did you know that the character Plankton from Spongebob is based on a real planktonic animal – the Copepod (shown above)? There are even specific group of copepods with one eye, just like Plankton, called Cyclops!
Can blue whales defend themselves?
Well, whales protect their young similarly to how they’d protect themselves – by traveling in pods. Again, by traveling in numbers, whales make it harder for sharks or orcas to target a specific member. If they feel threatened, though, whales will form a circle with their head facing inward, tail facing out.
What animal eats a whale?
The only sea creature known to attack blue whales is the orca whale (scientific name: Orcinus orca) also known as the “killer whale”. They have been known to work in groups to attack blue whales. However, there are very few reports of orcas actually killing blue whales.
What is the largest plankton eating fish called?
The largest fish that feast on plankton is the whale shark, followed by the basking shark. The whale shark can weigh as much as 75,000 pounds and…
What animal has no predator?
Animals with no natural predators are called apex predators, because they sit at the top (or apex) of the food chain. The list is indefinite, but it includes lions, grizzly bears, crocodiles, giant constrictor snakes, wolves, sharks, electric eels, giant jellyfish, killer whales, polar bears, and — arguably — humans.
Do blue whales eat big fish?
Blue whale diets
But despite their enormous size, blue whales feed almost exclusively on krill – small, shrimp-like crustaceans that grow to about six centimetres. These tiny animals are found in all of Earth’s oceans, swimming in massive swarms, sometimes of more than 30,000 individuals.
Are blue whales friendly?
As a species, whales are generally non-violent and do not display aggressive behaviors towards humans; however, in situations where a whale may feel threatened or frightened, it may defend itself by attacking what it thinks is a potential threat.
Do whales fart?
Yes, whales do fart. Can you imagine the size and bubbles of a fart from the world’s biggest animal, the blue whale?
Who eats killer whales?
What Eats Killer Whales? As apex predators, killer whales have no known natural predators. Their lone threat from other animals has been from humans, who reduced their populations dramatically across the 20th century.
Can you survive inside a whale?
As you have probably gathered by now, even though it is technically possible to survive being swallowed by a whale, it’s extremely unlikely. But luckily for us, whales are generally not that interested in humans. If you are going to worry about anything eating you in the water, it should probably be sharks.
Has anyone survived inside a whale?
James Bartley (1870–1909) is the central figure in a late nineteenth-century story according to which he was swallowed whole by a sperm whale. He was found still living days later in the stomach of the whale, which was dead from harpooning.
Are whales vegetarian?
Whales are not herbivores but there are relatively few herbivorous animals in the sea. Their enormous weight is supported by the water, which explains how they can get so big.
Do orcas eat dolphins?
Looking at all populations, orcas are generalist eaters, consuming fish, seals and sea lions, dolphins and porpoises, sharks and rays, large whales, cephalopods (octopods and squids), seabirds and more.
Are orcas friendly?
To answer the first question, are killer whales dangerous, they actually aren’t! Or at least to humans, usually. Although you should still be cautious, there has only been one instance of a killer whale attacking a person in the wild –with no instances of a wild orca killing a human.
Is a blue whale’s heart?
To power their humongous bodies, blue whales are equipped with a huge heart as well. The whale’s heart is about 5 feet in length, 4 feet in width and 5 feet in height, and can weigh as much as 175 kilograms, which is the same as some cars.
Do whales eat sardines?
Cetaceans: Whales and Dolphins
Some of the largest creatures in the ocean eat sardines — they are a favorite meal of some of the baleen whales that eat by straining their food rather than biting it.
Why do whales eat plankton?
There, the iron-rich whale feces acts as a fertilizer for phytoplankton, microscopic organisms that draw energy from sunlight to conduct photosynthesis. The fertilized phytoplankton then get devoured by hungry krill, which then get eaten by whales, and so on.
How do blue whales survive on plankton?
This is how whales can easily eat a few tons of krill every day. In a nutshell, whales, some of the largest creatures on the planet, can survive by eating krill because they eat so many of them. To put this in perspective, consider a single grain of rice, which is positively puny in comparison to a human.
Why do whales not eat big fish?
The larger fish that feeds on this fish will produce only 1 unit of energy, which may not be enough to sustain the large whale. This is why Baleen whales have evolutionarily evolved into suspension feeders, using Baleen plates to take in large amounts of water and sift through to find small krill.
Is a starfish a plankton?
Temporary plankton, or meroplankton, such as young starfish, clams, worms, and other bottom-dwelling animals, live and feed as plankton until they leave to become adults in their proper habitats.
What’s the difference between krill and plankton?
The main difference between krill and plankton is that krill are small crustaceans that consume both zooplankton and phytoplankton, whereas plankton is the diverse collection of organisms that serve as a crucial source of food at the bottom line of food chains.
What animals feed on krill?
Krill is the near-exclusive food for giant blue whales, and seabirds like auklets and shearwaters. Commercially valuable salmon, rockfish, flatfish, sardines and squid thrive on krill. When abundant, animals migrate thousands of miles to feed on krill.
How big is a human compared to a blue whale?
Weight. The blue mammal is also incredibly heavy: 170+ tonnes, in fact. This is over 4 times larger than a sperm whale, and over 2,400+ the size of a human. Some blue whales are estimated to be as large as 190 tonnes.
Do blue whales have teeth?
Blue whales are enormous, magnificent creatures. The largest mammals known to have existed, they can grow to be more than 100 feet in length and weigh more than 100 tons, and they don’t even have teeth. They capture prey using a giant sieve in their mouth of baleen or whalebone.
Do orcas eat common prawns?
Krill. Shrimp. Copepod crustaceans like water fleas. Schools of small fish like anchovies and herring.
Do whales eat penguins?
Killer whales have also been reported to eat many other types of animals including leatherback sea turtles, dugongs, moose, and penguins and other seabirds.
Do whales eat jellyfish?
Transient killer whales sometimes play with their food, but they’ve rarely been documented toting jellyfish, or sea jellies, in their mouths.
Is a Kraken bigger than a blue whale?
The largest lengths estimated for them are longer than blue whales, and the heaviest estimated weights are heavier than blue whales.
Can an octopus eat a whale?
Dead whale fall devoured by octopus and scavengers in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Imagine the lifeless form of a massive baleen whale, falling silently through the lightless environment of the deep ocean.
Is a jellyfish bigger than a blue whale?
It is the largest known jellyfish and has a recorded length of 36.6 meters (120 feet). This means that the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish tops the Blue Whale in terms of length! This jellyfish has been around significantly longer than the great blue whale, having existed 650 million years ago.
Who would win a megalodon or a killer whale?
In the battle of whether the Megalodon or Whale would dominate the ocean today, it’s likely that these massive sharks would win the battle with their long, sharp teeth and amazing crushing power.
Are sharks afraid of killer whales?
Great White Sharks that have been tagged by researchers have been known to leave areas when they detect the presence of Killer Whales. Great White Sharks are definitely incredible ocean predators, but just like other animals, part of their success and survival is dependent on knowing when to pack it in.”
Do orcas protect humans from sharks?
There were also stories of fishermen falling into the shark-infested waters when their boats were swamped by a humpback and Tom and other orcas warding the sharks off and saving their partners’ lives.
What’s the biggest creature in the ocean?
Not only is the blue whale the largest animal to live on the Earth today, they are also the largest animal to have ever existed on Earth. A blue whale can grow up to 100 feet long and weigh upwards of 200 tons. A blue whale’s tongue alone can weigh as much as an elephant and its heart weighs as much as an automobile.
Are blue whales bigger than dinosaurs?
Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived—they’re even bigger than dinosaurs! Blue whales reach 34 meters (110 feet) long and weigh as much as 172,365 kilograms (190 tons). That’s more than twice as long as a city bus!
Who would win megalodon vs Kraken?
The megalodon would struggle, using its body weight to try and escape the Kraken. But the kraken is too strong, and its grip would be unshakeable as its suction cups cling onto the megalodon. The megalodon could bite into one of the kraken’s tentacles, tearing it apart.