Blue whales
joshua tigue

1blue whales are the largest animals on earth. they can measure up to 110 feet long and weigh as much as 400,000 pounds. blue whale babies are born big. they can weigh as much as 6,000 pounds at birth. they grow for one full year to reach their adult size.

2blue whales live in the ocean. they swim fast, which them catch food. blue whales must eat up to 8,000 pounds of food each day. they eat tiny fish called krill. to eat, the whale opens its mouth and lets the krill swim in. once the krill are inside, the whale begins to close its mouth. it does not close the mouth the whole way, though. the whale shows its baleen. baleen are long, strong hairs that act like teeth. the baleen allow the water to flow out. the baleen keep the krill in. the whale can then eat the fish.

3blue whales are named for their color. however, they are not really blue. although they look blue under the water, they are actually gray. blue whales prefer to swim alone. their bellies are yellow.

4since blue whales are mammals, they must breathe air. blue whales have a blowhole on the tops of their heads. a blowhole is like the nostril in a human nose. it lets blue whales breathe the air in and blow it back out. when whales go underwater, they can close their blowholes. they can open their blowholes when they want, too.

5because of their size, blue whales cannot be harmed by many other animals. this means they can live safely for a long time. they can live eighty or ninety years. some even live to be one hundred years old!

which two central topics are both addressed in this text? a) the importance of size and interesting eating habits of blue whales b) the importance of size and the fighting habits of blue whales c) the strange eating habits of large and small ocean mammals and krill d) the various ways blue mammals protect themselves and eat krill