Nature, flora and fauna are so diverse and amazing that until now mankind has not been able to understand and cognize many of their secrets. Striking, for example, is the fact that the largest animals that have existed on our planet in its entire history - blue whales - have the slowest heartbeat. However, blue whales provide many more reasons for surprise.
Blue whale and its slow heart
Even if we take into account the giants that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago - brachiosaurs, blue whales still surpass them in size, their weight is more than 2 times the weight of these fossil animals. If you compare the blue whale with the second largest modern animal living on the planet, the African elephant, then the superiority of the whale is undoubted - it is 38 times heavier than an elephant. The average length of a blue whale is 26 meters, and the largest whale ever seen by man was 33.5 meters long. On average, such a whale weighs 150 tons, about the same as 2,400 people.
With all this, the blue whale's heart rate is the slowest of all animals - during a dive, it is only 4 to 8 beats per minute. At this time, only the brain and heart of the giant are supplied with blood. By the way, its heart weighs about 650 kg and is comparable in size to a small car like the Mini Cooper. The main aorta is larger in diameter than the world's largest water pipe, located in London, and it can withstand more pressure. And you can hear the heart of a whale working very far away - at a distance of several tens of kilometers, these sounds are easily picked up by acoustic devices located on ships. The heart of the whale is a reliable and wear-resistant pump with high efficiency; not a single designer has yet been able to bring such technical solutions to life.
How blue whales live
Once upon a time, all oceans were inhabited by blue whales, but their numbers gradually decreased, in addition, whale fishing has become the reason that today the Arctic population of these animals, according to various estimates, ranges from several hundred to several thousand. A more accurate estimate is not possible given the deep sea habitat of blue whales.
To feed itself, this giant needs to eat about 1 ton of krill every day - small crustaceans and shrimps living in the surface waters of the ocean, which in terms of energy value is about 1 million calories. Swimming through layers rich in krill, whales swallow hundreds of tons of water and crustaceans, and then push the water out by filtering the krill through a sieve of "whalebone" - numerous horny plates hanging from the palate.
The whale's mouth is a spacious room with an area of about 24 square meters. m.
Throughout the year, whales migrate - in the summer they "graze" in the circumpolar regions of Antarctica, and by winter they move to warm equatorial waters, overcoming more than one thousand miles of travel. At the same time, "on the road" they can eat nothing at all, spending the fat reserve that they have grown up on summer or winter pastures. Whales travel usually alone, sometimes in pairs, and can communicate, emitting intense low-frequency sounds reaching a level of 188 dB, which allows their relatives to hear, which are about 1500 km away.
In a calm state, the whale swims at a speed of 10-15 km / h, but sometimes it develops a speed of up to 35-40 km / h, which, however, can be maintained for a very short time, only a few minutes.
Female whales bear cubs for 11 months, a 7-meter newborn "baby" weighing 2 tons is able to drink more than 0.5 tons of fatty mother's milk every day and double their initial weight in a week, by which time they can already provide themselves with food on their own …Whales become adults only after 4, 5 years, and reach full physical maturity by 14-15 years.
