Reports
Baturyn Elementary School
Humpback Whales
| Humpback Whales By Tyler Introduction Humpback whales are very captivating creatures. In my report I am going to tell you about the physical appearance, habitat, what it eats, enemies, reproduction, behavior, why it is endangered and interesting facts about the amazing humpback whale. Physical Appearance The physical appearance of a humpback whale is unique. They have 4 color schemes ranging from white, gray, and black to mottled. There are also distinctive markings on the fluke sort of like fingerprints, so scientists know whale from whale. They're skin is frequently scarred, Humpbacks have up to 14 to 35 throat grooves, the throat grooves run from the chin to the navel. Well that's the end of physical appearance. I hope you have pictured a humpback whale in your mind. Habitat You want to know the habitat of a humpback whale; they prefer the surface of the ocean. They also like shallow coastline waters, and warm tropical waters are where they breed and Clave. They like and prefer to eat in the arctic. They like to stay along coasts, or continental shelves of the island banks. Sometimes they swim in open seas but not often. Well that's it for habitat I hope you learned a lot! Food In this category I am going to tell you what humpback whales eat. Humpback whales are seasonal feeders also carnivores. They have a way of feeding called filter feeding; filter feeding is where the humpback sticks it's head out of the water with its mouth open, then a fish swims in the humpback mouth and clamp, the humpback closes its mouth. They like to feed on krill, plankton or other small fish like school fish. Herring is another kind of food humpbacks eat, but they mostly eat krill. Humpbacks are kind of lazy that's why they barley chase prey. They have a way to find food called echolocation. They also like to feed by making a bubble net; a bubble net is where the whale spins in a circle around blowing bubbles, that's a bubble net. And that's what humpbacks eat, sounds yummy hey. Enemies The main enemies of a humpback whale are people. They illegally hunt whales. Or fisherman just leave fishing nets in the water then the whale gets entangled and can't reach the surface in time to take a breath. Or water pollution they'll eat the oil or gas or garbage then they'll die. Well those are the enemies of a humpback whale. Reproduction This category tells how humpbacks mated and where they matted and babies. Where humpbacks mate is in tropical waters. The gestation is 11 to 12 months then the baby is born. Within 30 minutes the baby can swim. Oh and breeding occurs mostly in winter, early spring. The newborn calf is about 14 feet long. When the baby is born they feed on mothers rich and nurtured milk. The baby weighs 2.5 tons. And twins are extremely rare about 1% of births there's twins. Babies are only born once every 1-3 year. The mother bear lives her young and nurses the baby, the young reaches puberty at 4-7 years of age and reaches maturity at 15 years of age. That's it for reproduction, on to the next category. Behavior This next category, you can learn how humpback whales behaved. Well humpbacks are very cooperative hunters; they can round up highly amounts of food with others, they also travel in very large groups. Spyhoping is a sort of an activity where they stick their head up above the waters surface for 30 seconds and look around! Also they are the nosiest most imaginative animals when it comes to music and songs. They are also very acrobatic. And for fun they like to breech (jump) and slap the water with their huge bodies; breeching is for playing or for loosening tyte skin parasites. Humpback whales have long seasonal migrations. Humpbacks breech for social reasons. Next humpbacks work well with other baleen whales such as the bowhead whale, the right whale. Humpbacks like to stick they're tail up in the air and slap it on the waters surface that's called lobtailing. Did you know that only male humpbacks have been recorded singing, also scientists believe that the reason why humpback sings is because they are ready to mate? Well I hope you leant allot about humpbacks behavior. Why is it endangered? |
Dutch translation will follow later |
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