What creature is that you are probably wondering?
It is the whale.
We studied dinosaurs in the second grade, yet, dinosaurs pale in comparison to whales. While reading Moby Dick, I discovered a fascination for them because whales are truly sublime.
I’m now convinced that no child should complete childhood without learning about their amazing lives.
Here are 8 facts about whales that you can share with your child:
Fact 1: Whales Are the Largest Creature on Earth
Did you know that whales are the largest animal on Earth, even bigger than the T-Rex Dinosaur? The nine heaviest creatures in the world belong to the whale family. A blue whale weighs 200 tons, and when they give birth, their babies weigh three tons and gain 200 pounds per day!
Compare this to the largest elephant ever to exist (as far as we know), who weighed only 4 tons, and you begin to realize the magnitude of of whales.
Fact 2: Whales Have the Largest Brains
The sperm whales have the largest brains of any animal, including man. Not only do they have the largest brains, but their brains contain a neocortex, like the human brain. The neocortex governs higher cognitive functions such as planning, memory, empathy, and language.
The sperm whale has a highly sophisticated language that is based on sound. They emit coded clicks at the speed of milliseconds and can emit these sounds at vast distances.
Scientists today are trying to decode their language using artificial intelligence. Someone even wrote a book about real conversations with whales and how the lessons we learn from them can help us live more joyful lives.
“As for his true brain, the whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world. ”
Fact 3: Whales Rely on Sound to See
Because most of the whale’s life is spent at the bottom of the ocean, they must rely on sound to see. Whales use click sounds to communicate which is called echolocation. Echolocation is when their sounds bounce off of an object and send back an echo to the whale that tells them where the object is.
Fact 4: Whales are the loudest animals alive
They rely on click sounds to see, but these sounds can be as loud as 230 decibels making them the loudest animals on earth. In comparison, if you stood next to a jet engine, the engine's sound is about 150 decibels.
Whales are so loud that their clicking sounds can kill a man!
Fact 5: Whales Can Hold Their Breath for 90 Minutes
Whales can live underwater for about 90 minutes because their bodies can store massive amounts of oxygen in their muscles. When whales surface to breathe, they breathe for about seven minutes before they go underwater again.
Fact 6: Whales Have Complex Social Structures
Female whales live in multi-generational families. In contrast, the male whales live solitary lives and return to the females only during the mating season.
Whales will mourn the death of a loved one, and they will celebrate the birth of a calf, according to Shane Gero, a behavioral ecologist and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project.
They have different dialects for each whale pod.
Fact 7: A Whale’s Excrement Is More Valuable than Gold!
Yes, it’s true. Whales eat large squid, and the indigestible parts of the squid are eventually excreted. These excretions float in the water for seven years, going through various changes, and can be washed up on shores in the form of what is known as ambergris.
“It’s beyond comprehension how beautiful it is, It’s transformative. There’s a shimmering quality to it. It reflects light with its smell. It’s like an olfactory gemstone,” is how Mandy Aftel, a perfumer describes ambergris.
It can sell for anywhere from 10K to 100K, depending upon the size.
In 2021, a group of Yemeni fishermen found 1.5 million dollars worth of ambergris in the floating carcass of a sperm whale!
Fact 8: Great Whales Are an Endangered Species
Sperm whales are the citizens of the ocean, and they are dying.
"Why are they dying?" asks Shane Gero.
And then he answers his own question: "It's us," he says. "All of us."
The deluge of gargantuan shipping fleets bringing us our goods from all over the world are killing the greatest creature on earth. Calves are born, but they are dying from accidents caused by large freighter ships.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, sperm whales were hunted for oil and spermiceti, but now they are killed because of our ignorance. It’s ironic that arguably the most intelligent animal on Earth is going extinct because of man’s stupidity, or greed.
Today, six out of 13 great whale species are considered endangered, including the sperm whale who was the subject of Melville’s masterpiece, Moby Dick.
Teach Your Children Well
Teach your children about the greatest creature on Earth when they are young, and you will have no problem getting them to read Moby Dick when they are older.
Moby Dick is the story of an obsessive pursuit for one albino sperm whale named Moby Dick by a man with a wretched heart called Ahab.
While it's not easy to read, it's a powerful and often humorous book with themes of human nature and human folly gracing the pages.
“God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates. ”
John Taylor Gatto used to have his sixth-grade students read Moby Dick.
Though I never asked him why out of all the great Western classics, he chose Moby Dick; my guess is because once you read it, you can successfully tackle any other work of great fiction.
☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.
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Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.
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