What can a blue whale swallow? Detailed answer

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What can a blue whale swallow? Detailed answer

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What can a blue whale swallow?

It is very interesting that the throat of a blue whale in its diameter does not exceed its navel (with a saucer) and slightly less than its eardrum (about the size of a small plate).

For eight months of the year, blue whales eat almost nothing, but all summer they feed almost non-stop, absorbing three tons of food a day. As you probably remember from your biology class, the blue whale's diet consists entirely of small pink crustaceans, otherwise known as krill, a delicacy that is also very easy to swallow. Krill is conveniently served directly into the whale's mouth in huge shoals, each of which can reach 100 tons or more.

The word krill comes from Norway. It comes from the Dutch kriel, meaning "small change", but in modern language it is also used to mean "pygmy" or "small potato". Krill sticks were in relatively good demand in Chile, but the so-called "shrimp mince" has become a real disaster for Russia, Poland and South Africa because of the dangerously high fluorine content. Its source was the shell of the krill - too small to peel off each of the crustaceans before putting it into a meat grinder.

And since the throat of the blue whale is too narrow, it means that even with all the desire, he could not swallow Jonah. The only species of whale that a person can crawl into the throat is the sperm whale, but its stomach is so acidic that it is simply impossible to survive in the whale's belly. And the famous story of 1891 about the "modern Jon" - the English sailor James Bartley, allegedly swallowed by a giant sperm whale and fifteen hours later rescued by fellow whalers - is pure fiction and quackery.

With the exception of the throat, everything else in the blue whale is very large. With a length of 32 m, this is the largest of all creatures that have ever lived on our planet. It is three times the size of the largest of the dinosaurs, and weighs as much as 2700 people combined. A single blue whale tongue weighs more than an elephant, has a heart the size of a family car, and a stomach that can hold over a ton of food. In addition, the sound emitted by a blue whale is the loudest of all that a living creature can produce: fellows can hear its low-frequency "rumble" at a distance of more than 16 thousand km.

Author: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Which country passed the first animal rights law in the world?

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Japan was ruled by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who went down in history under the nickname "Dog Shogun". He issued an animal rights decree, the earliest known law of its kind in world history, banning the killing of dogs, cats, and driven horses under penalty of death. Citizens had to affectionately address stray dogs as "High Nobility Dog", and those who did not obey this requirement were subjected to corporal punishment. In the capital of Edo, several shelters were built for breeding dogs, where they were entitled to a ration more than for the peasants. These measures, along with the financial crisis, caused growing discontent among the population, and after the death of Tsunayoshi, his successor immediately repealed this law.

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