Wonderful whale facts

There are two types of whales

Whales come in all shapes and sizes but every one of them can be classified into two separate types and it is to do with their mouths. 

Whales that have teeth are, unsurprisingly, called toothed whales and they generally hunt fish, squid and other invertebrates that require the ability to grip onto slippery prey. Well known toothed whales include sperm whales and belugas however dolphins and porpoises are a subclass of toothed whales meaning they evolved from this class of whale too.

Another way to differentiate these two classes of whale is their blowhole. Baleen whales have two blowholes compared to the single one that toothed whales have.

Not all toothed whales have recognisable teeth 

Despite their name, there are some toothed whales that have rather unconventional 'teeth'. The narwhal for example does have teeth but unlike other toothed whales, the males’ tusk is actually one of its teeth. They also have two main canine teeth in the upper jaw, but they don't have rows of teeth like other toothed whales.

Whales have belly buttons and hair 

You may know that whales are mammals and they have a small area where their umbilical cord was attached while they were developing inside their mother’s womb. 

Unlike a human’s belly button, which is quite noticeable and might stick out, a whale’s belly button is rather difficult to see as it is usually a small, flat scar on the underside of its body. 

Only some whales have the ability to smell

It may seem odd but evolving to live in the ocean has meant that a lot of whales have lost their olfactory bulbs (the structure in the brain that processes information on smell).  

Toothed whales such as the beluga and long-finned pilot whale cannot smell at all, relying on their echolocation to find and hunt down food. However, baleen whales such as the Sei whale and humpback still have a sense of smell through their blowhole. However, they can't use it while underwater. Because of how scent works, they can only detect airborne odours when at the surface. 

It is thought that some baleen whales might even be able to find areas containing lots of prey using their super-smell allowing them to locate food across huge areas of ocean. 

Scientists have also not ruled out the possibility that humpbacks may actually get involved because they want to protect other animals from predators like a form of ocean guardian. In one recorded case in 2017, a humpback appeared to protect a diver in the Cook Islands from an approaching tiger shark, that it may have thought was a threat, by guiding her (quite forcefully) toward her boat.

Sperm whales also tend to defecate together while socialising. During large gatherings, so many whales can empty their bowels that the surrounding water becomes cloudy with excrement, which the whales seem perfectly happy to continue swimming through. Scientists still aren't sure why they sometimes synchronise their bowel movements. One possibility is that because other behaviours become synchronised during social gatherings, defecating at the same time may simply be another part of this coordinated activity.

Some whale populations have made remarkable conservation recoveries

In the past, whales were hunted in great numbers for meat, oil, bone and other materials which lead multiple species to be pushed close to extinction.

Whale populations are slow to rebound because they usually only give birth to one calf at a time and wait several years before mating again while caring for their baby. Whales also have long gestation periods, usually around 10 to 18 months, depending on the species, which means any harm that happens to a pregnant female can have a devastating effect on the next generation. 

Whales are still being discovered

Though it is unlikely that an entirely new species of whale never before seen will be found, species are still being formally recognised. In 2003, scientists reclassified an entirely new species that had previously been mistaken from genetic material. It was only in 2015 that scientists finally recognised Omura's whales in the wild and stopped mistaking them as small Bryde’s whales.