For them, a fight rather than flight defence strategy against predators may be taken. Some other baleen whales, such as southern right whales that can reach over 16m-long, are less streamlined than blue whales due to their chunkier, but more flexible, bodies. Unless you’re a large shark, say, over several meters long, you simply may not have sufficient power in your jaws to effectively tear off the meat, even if you could keep up with a blue whale. AAP Image, Mike Johnson/Australian Antarctic Divisionīut the difficulties for a shark in capturing a blue whale don’t end with their limited endurance at high speed. This is how blue whales maximise their energy intake while minimising effort.īlue whales can unhinge their jaw and take in thousands of litres of water. Instead of teeth, blue whales (along with humpbacks, and many other whale species) have bristle-like baleen, which strain the small organisms from the water when their mouth cavity is compressed. With this remarkable device, blue whales can engulf thousands of litres of water in one go. The lunge builds enormous water pressure against their mouth, inflating the pleat-like grooved blubber around their mouth cavity to balloon like an accordion’s bellows. They lunge through dense patches of thousands, if not millions, of krill, with large, gaping jaws that can open up to around 80 degrees. Rather, they evolved an efficient way of consuming very large amounts of tiny prey: krill. Marcelo Cidrack/Unsplash, CC BY A grand banquetĪt up to 30 metres long and weighing over 100 tonnes, a blue whale easily outsizes a white shark, which can measure perhaps over 6m and weigh less than a tonne.īut the blue whale didn’t get so big from killing and eating other large animals such as sharks. White sharks have teeth designed to rip flesh.
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