CONSERVATION OF ENDANGERED SPECIES SAVING THE ENDANGERED BLUE WHALE SIMONE PAYMENT Britannica Educational Publishing IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROSEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
4 THE ENDANGERED BLUE WHALE The blue whale is the largest animal on Earth In fact it is likely the largest animal that has ever lived Like all whales it is a mammal About every ten to twenty minutes it must come to the surface to breathe Blue whales live in all oceans on Earth There used to be more than two hun dred thousand blue whales on the planet However for many years blue whales were hunted for their oil and body parts They were The blue whale is larger than any other animal on Earth
5 Vocabulary Mammals are warm-blooded animals that breathe air have a spine and feed their young with milk produced by the mother THE ENDANGERED BLUE WHALE close to extinction in the 1960s when laws were passed to protect them Today the blue whale remains an endangered species Scien tists and conservationists are working to study these huge animals and to help them survive Before laws were made to limit whale hunting people hunted many types of whales like this sperm whale
