BLUE WHALES

Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet (30 meters) long and upwards of 200 tons (181 metric tons). Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.

Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material, called baleen, attached to their upper jaws. The giant animals feed by first gulping an enormous mouthful of water, expanding the pleated skin on their throat and belly to take it in. Then the whale's massive tongue forces the water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates. Thousands of krill are left behind—and then swallowed.

Blue whales appear blue underwater, but on the surface their coloring is more of blue-gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish hue from the millions of microorganisms that take up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that ends in wide, triangular flukes.

Blue whales live in all the world's oceans occasionally swimming in small groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives.

These graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour , but accelerate to more than 20 miles an hour (32 kilometers an hour) when they are agitated. Blue whales are among the loudest animals on the planet. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it’s thought that, in good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. Scientists think they use these vocalizations not only to communicate, but, along with their excellent hearing, to sonar-navigate the lightless ocean depths.

Really Big Babies

Blue whale calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) and stretching to 25 feet (8 meters). It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds (91 kilograms) every day for its first year.

Blue whales are  Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a close estimate of the animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was determined to be around 110 years old. Average lifespan is estimated at around 80 to 90 years.

Between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales are believed to still swim the world's oceans. Aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the brink of extinction.  They finally came under protection with the 1966 International Whaling Commission, but they've managed only a minor recovery since then.

 Blue whales are currently classified as endangered on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List.

crazy health facts

• If a man with normal vision and a color-blind woman have children, the daughters will have normal vision and the sons will be color-blind.(amazing fact)
• According to the Worldwide Penis Size Map, men in Congo have the largest penis size. US men are 95th, just after the Russians.
• Cigarettes can contain more than 4,000 ingredients, which, when burned, can also produce over 200 ‘compound’ chemicals. Many of these ‘compounds’ which lead  to lung damage.
• Chickens can suffer from depression.
• Having orgasms prevent men from prostate cancer. Two large studies, reported in 2003 and 2004, found that middle-aged men who had (or at least remember having) at least four orgasms a week throughout their 20s, 30s and 40s had a reduced risk of prostate cancer by as much as one-third. Some researchers speculate that ejaculations may clear the prostate of carcinogens.
• In 1962, an epidemic of laughing broke out in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Starting among a group of schoolgirls, the laughter spread rapidly, eventually infecting neighbouring villages and forcing schools to close. It lasted for at least six months.
• Anton-Babinski syndrome is a rare condition in which a blind person doesn’t realise that they are blind. They usually insist they can see perfectly well, and make up excuses for why they make errors – such as blaming the quality of light in the room, or saying they’re a bit tired.
• The best way to tell if you have bad breath is to lick your wrist, let you saliva dry, and then smell it.
• If you are locked in a sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before your brain starves from oxygen deprivation.
• Monday is the day of the week when the risk of heart attack is greatest.
• A man once sued his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the doctor predicted.
• In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
• Madeline Mitchell overcame a 12-day coma, 21 days on a respirator, two months in a wheelchair and a femur broken in 12 places to become Miss Alabama USA and compete in Miss USA 2011 two years later.