Facts

Whales, along with dolphins and porpoises, are warm-blooded mammals and breathe air like humans do. There are some significant differences between whales and fish: Whales are warm blooded. Fish are cold blooded. Whales breathe air through lungs. Fish use gills to extract air from water. Whales give birth to live young. Most fish (with some…

Cetacean is the collective noun used to describe all 90 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises. The word cetacean has its origins in Latin (Cetus) referring to a large sea creature and Greek (Ketos) meaning whale or sea monster. Having evolved around 50 million years ago, today they are separated into two distinct types -…

Looking at a whale’s body and biology, there are plenty of clues that their ancestors lived on land. They breathe air and nurse their young with their own milk, they also have paddle-shaped flippers which encase hand bones with five ‘fingers’. As embryos, whales have tiny back limbs which disappear before birth. Hippos are the…

Collectively, whales, dolphins and porpoises are known as cetaceans. Cetacean species are divided into two groups. (1) Baleen whales – these are the “great whales” and as their name suggests they all have baleen plates that are used to filter their food (which consists of plankton and small species of fish). (2) Toothed whales (otherwise…

There are 14 species of baleen whale including the blue, bowhead, right, humpback, minke and grey 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.…

Dolphins can live for a very long time and females tend to live longer than males. Female bottlenose dolphins have been known to live for more than 60 years and dolphins up to 48 years old have given birth. The oldest known dolphin is a bottlenose dolphin named Nicklo by researchers studying dolphins in Sarasota…

Dolphin pregnancies last between 10 months (harbour porpoise) and 18 months (orcas) depending on the species. Bottlenose dolphin pregnancies are somewhere in the middle lasting about 12 months, a little longer than human pregnancies which last 9 months. Dolphins give birth to a single baby; the baby is usually born tail first (unlike most mammals)…

A group of dolphins is called a pod. Dolphins are social mammals that interact with one another, swim together, protect each other, and hunt for food as a team. Pod life plays a very important role in protecting dolphins from predators such as sharks. Most pods contain anywhere from 2 – 30 dolphins depending on the species and the situation, however there are occasions when pods gather…

Most dolphins have equal-sized conical shaped teeth in both upper and lower jaws (porpoises’ teeth are spade-shaped) perfect for grasping fish and squid. Like most mammals, newborn dolphin teeth are still embedded in the gums. Their teeth will start erupting in the first 5 weeks of life. Dolphins have one set of teeth to last…