Ep. 124: Whales – 6 Types

February 11, 2024 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on the biggest mammal on planet Earth the whale. Whales are primarily divided into two main suborders which are Odontoceti, which are the toothed whales, and Mysticeti, which are baleen whales.

Known for their complex communication (and even singing by the Humpback) and epic migrations travelling thousands of miles, the whale is a social animal that forms pods. Which can also be referred to as a game, herd, or school. I ask the question again “Why can’t we just have one collective noun per animal?”

Unfortunately, commercial whaling has brought many species to their knees and as a result, an international agreement was made in regards to the moratorium on commercial whaling to protect and preserve whale populations.

Hopefully, now the tide has turned and this has been demonstrated with whale watching eco-tourism providing both economic benefits and conservation education.

Now to get ahead of all the questions that will be asked in regards to the mnemonic containing an orca which people will say is a dolphin. Yes, the orca is in the dolphin family and that family is in the category of toothed whales. So yes, all dolphins are whales, it basically just depends on how specific you want to be in their classification.

Today’s mnemonic will be on six types of whales.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jumping_Humpback_whale.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Whales (Balaena) 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 last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (the grey whale). Odontocetes include the Monodontidae (belugas and narwhals), Physeteridae (the sperm whale), Kogiidae (the dwarf and pygmy sperm whale), and Ziphiidae (the beaked whales), as well as the six families of dolphins and porpoises which are not considered whales in the informal sense.

Whales are fully aquatic, open-ocean animals: they can feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea. Whales range in size from the 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) and 135 kilograms (298 lb) dwarf sperm whale to the 29.9 metres (98 ft) and 190 tonnes (210 short tons) blue whale, which is the largest known animal that has ever lived. The sperm whale is the largest toothed predator on Earth. Several whale species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the females are larger than males.

Baleen whales have no teeth; instead, they have plates of baleen, fringe-like structures that enable them to expel the huge mouthfuls of water they take in while retaining the krill and plankton they feed on. Because their heads are enormous—making up as much as 40% of their total body mass—and they have throat pleats that enable them to expand their mouths, they are able to take huge quantities of water into their mouth at a time. Baleen whales also have a well-developed sense of smell.

Toothed whales, in contrast, have conical teeth adapted to catching fish or squid. They also have such keen hearing—whether above or below the surface of the water—that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species, such as sperm whales, are particularly well adapted for diving to great depths to catch squid and other favoured prey.

Whales evolved from land-living mammals, and must regularly surface to breathe air, although they can remain underwater for long periods of time. Some species, such as the sperm whale, can stay underwater for up to 90 minutes.[2] They have blowholes (modified nostrils) located on top of their heads, through which air is taken in and expelled. They are warm-blooded, and have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin. With streamlined fusiform bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers, whales can travel at speeds of up to 20 knots, though they are not as flexible or agile as seals. Whales produce a great variety of vocalizations, notably the extended songs of the humpback whale. Although whales are widespread, most species prefer the colder waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and migrate to the equator to give birth. Species such as humpbacks and blue whales are capable of travelling thousands of miles without feeding. Males typically mate with multiple females every year, but females only mate every two to three years. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer; females bear all the responsibility for raising them. Mothers in some species fast and nurse their young for one to two years.

Once relentlessly hunted for their products, whales are now protected by international law. The North Atlantic right whales nearly became extinct in the twentieth century, with a population low of 450, and the North Pacific grey whale population is ranked Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Besides the threat from whalers, they also face threats from bycatch and marine pollution. The meat, blubber and baleen of whales have traditionally been used by indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Whales have been depicted in various cultures worldwide, notably by the Inuit and the coastal peoples of Vietnam and Ghana, who sometimes hold whale funerals. Whales occasionally feature in literature and film. A famous example is the great white whale in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. Small whales, such as belugas, are sometimes kept in captivity and trained to perform tricks, but breeding success has been poor and the animals often die within a few months of capture. Whale watching has become a form of tourism around the world.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Whale_001_noaa_body_color.jpg

Mnemonic

Whales – 6 Types Mnemonic – BOBS Blue Humpback

(Picture a guy called Bob who sails his yacht with his unique pet whale which is a Blue Humpback)

1. Baleen Whale

2. Orca

3. Beluga Whale

4. Sperm Whale

5. Blue Whale

6. Humpback Whale

Five Fun Facts

1. Whales are divided into two main groups which are baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales include humpbacks and blue whales and possess fibrous ‘baleen’ plates in their mouth instead of teeth helping them feed on krill, plankton, and crustaceans. While toothed whales include whales such as orcas, beluga whales and sperm whales, whose teeth enable them to feed on larger prey such as fish and squid.

2. The Blue whale as everyone knows is the largest animal on the planet. Its heart can be as big as a VW Beetle, you can shoot a basketball down its arteries, while its mouth is big enough to host a party for 100 people.

3. The Gray whales are committed travellers and undergo a round-trip of between 10,000 to 12,400 miles every year between the warm waters of Mexico and their feeding grounds in the cold Arctic seas. It is said, that in distance they travel to the moon and back in their average lifetime of around 40 years.

4. The Male Narwhal holds the record for the longest tooth of any animal. Its horn which is actually an oversized canine tooth has a mind-blowing 10 million nerve endings and can grow up to an incredible length of 10 feet long.

5. From the longest tooth of any animal to the longest-lived marine mammal, and this award goes to the Bowhead whale which can live for over 200 years. Apparently, this long lifespan can be accredited to a very low body temperature.

6. When feeding, whales can swallow their entire body weight in water. They rush head first into their food source which can include plankton and fish, which is then filtered by the ‘baleen’ hairs in their throat.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Humpback_whales_in_singing_position.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Approximately how many hours a day are whales thought to sleep? Options are 2, 4, or 8 hours

Q.2. What order classification do whales belong to?

Q.3. Which whale has the largest brain?

Bonus Q. Which whale has two blowholes?

Bonus Q. What does it take to circumcise a whale?

Mnemonic Recap

Whales – 6 Types Mnemonic – BOBS Blue Humpback

(Picture a guy called Bob who sails his yacht with his unique pet whale which is a Blue Humpback)

1. Baleen Whale

2. Orca

3. Beluga Whale

4. Sperm Whale

5. Blue Whale

6. Humpback Whale

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. Approximately how many hours a day are whales thought to sleep? Options are 2, 4, or 8 hours

A. 8 hours. It is thought that only one hemisphere of their brain sleeps at a time

Q.2. What order classification do whales belong to?

A. Cetacea

Q.3. Which whale has the largest brain?

A. The Sperm Whale weighing about 8 kg or 18 lb

Bonus Q. Which whale has two blowholes?

A. Baleen whale and these two blowholes cause a V-shaped spray

Bonus Q. What does it take to circumcise a whale?

A. Four-skin divers! Now you may laugh at that but I actually know a guy who has that exact job. Anyway, he said it didn’t pay too much, but the tips were huge!!

Word of the Week

imponderabilia

[ im-pon-der-uh-bil-ee-uh ]

plural noun

things that cannot be precisely determined, measured, or evaluated.

Example

As we spent the day whale watching my mind wondered as to the imponderabilia of a whale’s intelligence.

Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]

https://www.themnemonictreepodcast.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-mnemonic-tree-podcast/id1591795132

https://open.spotify.com/show/3T0LdIJ9PBQMXM3cdKd42Q?si=fqmaN2TNS8qqc7jOEVa-Cw

References