Give Now  »

Noon Edition

Big Blue Whales: The Gentle Giant

The biggest elephants can weigh over thirteen tons, but there's another animal that weighs over a hundred tons!

The Blue Whale

Blue whales are found in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, though they are a migratory species and go as far north and south as the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans in the summertime. The biggest one ever measured was one hundred and nine tons, and the longest was over one hundred and ten feet from end to end!

A Gentle Giant

You would think an animal that large would be ferocious, but actually, blue whales are entirely harmless. They eat mostly krill, which is a kind of shrimp, and tiny plankton.

They have much more to fear of human beings, who have hunted many species of whale to the verge of extinction, than we have of them.

Support For Indiana Public Media Comes From

About A Moment of Science