dziwne-zwierzęta-oceaniczne: Whale

Evidence: 96 • authority: 72

Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises. Dolphins and porpoises may be considered whales from a formal, cladistic perspective. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest non-cetacean living relatives are the hippopotamuses, from which they and other cetaceans diverged about 54 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their…

Evidence: 77 • authority: 72

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a species of baleen whale and the largest marine mammal in the rorqual family Balaenopteridae. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9–30.5 m (98–100 ft) and weighing up to 190–200 t (190–200 long tons; 210–220 short tons), it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can be of various shades of greyish-blue on its upper surface and somewhat lighter underneath. Four subspecies are recognized: B. m. musculus in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia in the Southern Ocean, B. m. brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale) in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, and B. m. indica in the North…

Evidence: 73 • authority: 72

Baleen whales (), also known as whalebone whales, are marine mammals of the parvorder Mysticeti in the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises), which use baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their mouths to sieve plankton from the water. Mysticeti comprises the families Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale) and Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale). There are 16 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychians, molecular evidence instead supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 milli…

Evidence: 40 • authority: 72

The blue whale penis is the largest in the animal kingdom. It is commonly cited as having an average penis length of 2.5–3 metres (8.2–9.8 ft) and a diameter of 30 centimetres (12 in) to 36 centimetres (14 in).

Evidence: 24 • authority: 92

Integrating Multiple Data Sources Improves Abundance Estimation in Spatial Capture-Recapture Models.. Reliable estimates of abundance are fundamental to conservation assessments and measuring the success of conservation actions, especially where populations are in decline or recovery. Here we present an approach that improves statistical precision and biological value of estimates of population size by integrating multiple data sources in a marine system. Using the eastern North Pacific blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ) as a case study, we apply spatial capture-recapture methods to estimate abundance using photo-identification data from surveys with known effort. We then integrate opport…

Evidence: 24 • authority: 92

Searching for separation between frequency-modulated calls of blue and fin whales.. Reliable differentiation of similar acoustic signals remains a major challenge for passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of sympatric marine mammal species. Blue (Balaenoptera musculus) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) produce frequency-modulated (FM) downsweeping calls with overlapping frequency ranges and durations, making species attribution difficult. This study combines long-term PAM datasets with animal-borne tag recordings to investigate how these FM calls can be reliably distinguished by species. Tag recordings with confirmed species identity showed substantial overlap in most acoustic features, bu…