Context: A few species of baleen whales produce the higher-pitched sounds that people are more familiar with as whale songs.
Baleen Whales
- There are 14 species of baleen whale including the blue, bowhead, right, humpback, minke and gray whale.
- Baleen whales are generally larger than toothed whales except for the sperm whale which is very big and has teeth.
- Many baleen whales migrate annually, travelling long distances between cold water feeding areas and warm water breeding areas.
Feeding Technique
- Baleen whale, any cetacean possessing unique epidermal modifications of the mouth called baleen, which is used to filter food from water.
- Baleen whales seek out concentrations of small planktonic animals.
- The whales then open their mouth and take in enormous quantities of water.
- When the mouth is closed, they squeeze the water out through the sides, catching the tiny prey on the baleen’s bristles.
Special Structure Baleen
- Baleen is a keratinized structure like hair, fingernails, and hooves.
- In the Greenland right whale (Balaena mysticetus), single plates of baleen can reach 5.2 meters (17 feet) long.
- Before the invention of spring steel and celluloid in the 19th century, “whalebone,” as baleen was called, was very valuable.
- Because it is flexible and retains shapes imposed on it with heat, baleen was used for springs and in products such as corsets, knife handles, umbrella ribs, brushes, and fans.
Songs
- The large air-breathing sea animals use a special voice box that enables them to make sounds underwater.
- Baleen whales do not have teeth or vocal cords like humans and other mammals.
- They have U-shaped tissue in their voice boxes that permits them to breathe a lot of air very quickly.
- Their voice boxes also contain a large “cushion” of fat and muscle not seen in other animals.
- Whales “sing” by pushing the tissue against the fat and muscle cushion.
- Baleen whales depend on the production of sound to communicate in the dark of the deep oceans.
- “For example, humpback females and their calves communicate with each other by voice, and humpback males sing to attract females,
Distribution
- Baleen whales can be found in all oceans worldwide, from polar seas to temperate and tropical zones. Some species of baleen whales have limited distribution. For example:
- Southern right whales are found only in the southern hemisphere; northern right whales are found only in the northern hemisphere.
- Some populations of baleen whale species are resident to restricted areas. A population of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) is found year-round in the Gulf of California
Habitat
- Some baleen whales are coastal (they stay near shore).
- They forage along the productive continental shelf area.
- Some species give birth and rear young in protected coastal bays and lagoons. Other species are oceanic (they roam the open seas).
Migration
- Most baleen whales are highly migratory, moving toward high-latitude (polar) feeding areas in the summer and toward low-latitude (tropical) calving areas in the winter.
- Variations in water temperature, food availability, and feeding habits may account for the movements of some animals.
- Some individual whales do not migrate. These may be juveniles or post-reproductive adults and may stay in protected nearshore areas.