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Baby
Whales on the Move
Can
You Spot Them?
So
how do you know when you're face-to-face with a calf?
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-
It
has smooth, dark gray to black skin.
(As it grows up, barnacles begin to appear.)
-
It
has a snout that looks like a
dimpled pickle!
The white specks in the center of the dimples are hairs.
Remember: Whales are mammals, so they must have some type
of hair!
-
It's
small . . . Well, smaller than mom, anyway. Read on.
Photo: Keith Jones
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How
Big is a Big Baby?
- Gray
whale calves are about 15 feet long at birth. They weigh
about
1,500 to 2,000 pounds!
- Each
day a calf can gain up to 70 pounds on its mother's fat-rich
milk.
- By
3 months of age, they can reach 18 to 19 feet
in length.
- When
they are adults, they will weigh between 30 and 40 tons —
about as much as 10 large elephants!
Try
This!
- Find
out how much you weighed when you were born. You can round up
or down to the nearest pound.
- Imagine
you gained 20% of your original birthweight each day for the
first 3 months (90 days) of your life, like a baby gray whale
does. How much would you have weighed when you were 3 months
old?
Journaling
Question:
- Why
do you think whale calves put on so much weight so quickly?
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