Gray whales are members of the genus Gray Whale and the only member of the gray whale family. Living gray whales are found in the northern Pacific Ocean and are divided into two populations, eastern and western. The current status of these two populations is simply very different. The current population of gray whales living in the northeast Pacific, on the west coast side of North America, has far exceeded the number of The West Pacific population, which is around 20,000, while the latter, according to a 2011 report released by the International Whaling Commission, has a population of about 130 gray whales in the West Pacific.
According to available measurements, female adults of gray whales are between 11.7 and 15.2 meters long, and male adults are between 11.1 and 14.3 meters long. Gray whales weigh up to 40 tons, and their lifespan is around 50 to 70 years. The appearance of gray whales is actually easy to identify - gray whales are dark gray in color and covered with clumps of white markings on the surface, which are usually caused by organisms such as barnacles that are epiphytic and parasitize gray whales.
Gray whales are marine animals that are good at "long march", and they are also the mammals that are known to have the longest annual migration distance. Every year, they travel back and forth between breeding grounds and foraging grounds, and the abundance of food and the warm climate are the main reasons for their back and forth. If we simplify the migration of gray whales, they breed in warm places during the cold season, and in the warm season, they rush to find food where the sea ice has melted, and then feast on them.
In the subpolar region of the Northern Hemisphere, on the side facing the Pacific Ocean, there is a Bering Strait. When spring arrives, the polar night gradually disappears, the temperature rises, the sea ice melts, and the sea ice in the sub-polar region gradually retreats north of the Chukotka Sea through the Bering Strait, and the marine life in the Arctic and subarctic regions begins to become active. Melting ice releases fresh water, releasing algae that live in sea ice into the water. The warm climate and the enhancement of light have promoted algae multiplication, providing abundant food for zooplankton, fish and other members of the sea, as well as food supplements for organisms on the seabed. In late spring, gray whales in the northeast Pacific swam north to the Bering Sea and its north, where they feed.
Gray whales have the shortest baleen of any cetacean, and they eat in a unique way — yes, other baleen whales don't. Gray whales, unlike blue whales, open their mouths widely to let the water flow into their mouths with krill, and then put the baleen together to push the seawater out with their tongues. Grey whales feed only on the shallow seafloor, feeding on benthic invertebrates and feeding mainly on small endpods. They swim to the bottom of the sea, tilt one side of their head, and then use their heads to sweep the bottom table – this is done to disturb the end-footed in the mud and let the hidden end-footed float up. The gray whale then opens its mouth, presses its tongue against its jaw, expands its throat groove to increase suction, and then sucks the endpods into its mouth. Because gray whales usually use only one side of their head to sweep the surface of the seafloor during feeding, they usually have one side of the bale shorter than the other, and fewer barnacles parasitize the skin on the shorter side of the whisker.
About the knowledge of gray whales, Xiaobian shared here today. In addition, about the knowledge of barnacles, if readers are interested, they can turn over the previous articles of the editor, which have Oh.