What do whales eat?
In the vastness of the oceans live the gentle giants - the whales. As medium-sized mammals or as colossi, the marine mammals move through all the world's oceans. But what kind of food do whales eat so that they can cover long distances and sometimes even feed young?
Different types of food
There are almost a hundred different species of whale. As different as the species, as different as the diets.
- Whales are divided into carnivores - so-called toothed whales and plankton eaters - called baleen whales. Depending on the diet, they are equipped with different bits. It is not easy to infer the type of diet from the external appearance, since especially plankton eaters can, contrary to expectations, reach a considerable size.
- Toothed whales have what is known as a secodontic set of teeth, which they can use to hunt large marine animals, similar to land predators. The teeth are triangular in the large jaw. They can stay under water for a long time and thus usually go hunting at considerable depths.
- Plankton-eating whales, on the other hand, do not need teeth to cut up their food. They have so-called beards. These are long, hair-like threads made of horn plates through which the water is sucked in and filtered.
What toothed whales eat
The most famous carnivorous whales include the killer whale, also known as the killer whale or orca, and the sperm whale. These species alone differ considerably in what they eat.
When you think of whales, you usually think of large ocean giants that leisurely ...
- Sperm whales hunt at great depths. They are the largest carnivorous whales and feed largely on squids, large squids. You can hold your breath for a few minutes, which means that you can hold your breath up to approx. To be able to dive 1000 m deep.
- Unlike the sperm whale, orcas do not hunt in the deep sea. Their diet consists mainly of sea birds and seals, but also small whales. Unlike most other whales, these whales mainly hunt in groups and are therefore very efficient at capturing larger animals.
- Other toothed whales, such as dolphins and beluga whales, tend to feed on small fish and clams.
What baleen whales eat
Plankton eaters also include the largest mammal on earth with a length of up to 30 m - the blue whale. But other whales, such as the gray whale or the humpback whale, also belong to this category.
- Plankton consists of a vegetable part, which is mainly composed of algae, and an animal part. This so-called krill, small crayfish, is very rich in protein.
- The whales ingest large amounts of water. Unlike plankton-eating sharks such as basking sharks or whale sharks, whales, as mammals, cannot filter plankton through their gills. Therefore, they have beards in which the small animal components get caught while the water is squeezed out again.
Due to the high nutritional value, it is possible for the animals to reach such a considerable size.
