- Recently,a biologist has recreated a blue whale from the skeletal remains of dead blue whales washed ashore on the Andhra Pradesh coast.
- The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet weighing as much as 200 tons.They are also the loudest animals on Earth and are even louder than a jet engine.
- Blue whales are called baleen whales which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material called baleen attached to their upper jaws.
- 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.
- However,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 listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List.In India,the blue whale comes under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act,1972.