Blue Whale is the largest animal to have ever existed
Its even twice larger than the largest dinosaur. It can reach a maximum length of 32 meters and have a maximum weight of 180 tons! The picture below gives a size comparison of Blue Whale with other giants.
Despite its size, it cannot swallow anything bigger than a grapefruit!
That is because they have a very narrow esophagus. The way they eat is to gulp large swarms of krills/plankton, which are then stuck to their baleens, when the whale pushes out the water it gulped. The baleens act as a kind of filter, which helps whale to swallow the food. A picture of a baleen is shown below.
Note that, blue whales, like other baleen whales, have no teeth. A video showing the eating behavior of a blue whale, is shown below.
Why a Blue whale can't survive outside water
Since they breath through lungs, you might wonder why they can't survive outside the water. The reason for this is that their body weight would crush their organs when lying on a surface. Water, on the other hand, helps them support their enormous body weight. This is basically true for all whales, not just Blue whales.
Blue whales are cosmopolitan
Blue whales are cosmopolitan, meaning that they are found in the oceans all around the world. The global population is thought to be between 10 and 25 thousand. The most popular places to watch blue whales are Southern California, SriLanka and New Zealand.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and learnt quite a bit about these majestic creatures in the process :)!