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Fast Facts
Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Average lifespan in the wild: 80 to 90 years
Size: 82 to 105 ft (25 to 32 m)
Weight: up to 200 tons (181,437 kg)
Group name: Pod
Did you know? When a blue whale exhales, the spray from its blowhole can reach nearly 30 ft (9m) into the air.
Blue Whale Profile
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 reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tons (3.6 metric tons) of krill a day.
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