Great Pictures of Whale

Whales come in different sizes, but they all have smooth skin, flippers, and flat tails (called flukes) that propel them through the water. They give birth and nurse their young in the water and live their entire lives there. Their specialized noses and ears have adapted to life underwater. They have excellent vision and large, intelligent brains.

Whales are divided into two groups: toothed and baleen.

Whales make lots of different kinds of sounds, including trills, whistles, moans, and squeals. Whistles seem to be used mainly for communicating with other whales. Single male humpback whales make their famous whale songs during the winter mating season.

Humans have hunted whales, mainly for their blubber (oil), for thousands of years. Present-day whalers use the meat as well as the blubber. At first, small-scale hunting did not affect whale populations. But in the last 200 years, humans have built bigger ships and better equipment to hunt and kill larger whales in faraway oceans. Humans have hunted whales for their meat, baleen, oil, and hides. Whale hunting, pollution, and human development along oceans and rivers have seriously impacted some whale populations.

The good news is that not all whales are endangered. Of those that are endangered, some populations are at higher risk of extinction than others. One great success story is the gray whale, which was hunted to the brink of extinction twice, and now has completely recovered due to protection and conservation efforts.

Picture : Killer Whale attacking gray whale calf