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
6 A blue whale may be more than 100 feet 30 meters long This is about the length of three school buses Females are usually longer than males PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE BLUE WHALE An elephant and a human look tiny when they are compared to the enormous blue whale
7 The adult blue whale has no natural predator What might be a reason for this Think About It PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE BLUE WHALE Blue whales can weigh 150 tons or more That means one blue whale may be heavier than thirty elephants Just the heart of one blue whale can weigh about 1,500 pounds 700 kilograms The blue whale’s body is blue-gray in color with some white or lighter gray areas The animals bellies are white but some times look yellowish The yellow color comes from the thousands of tiny yellowish-green creatures that live on the skin of a blue whale Blue whales have smooth flex ible skin and flat heads Their slippery skin and long shape help them glide through the water Near a blue whale’s mouth are grooves called ventral pleats The pleats let the mouth stretch widely as the whale eats
