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FIN WHALE FACTS |
Description
The Fin Whale is a streamlined rorqual with similar body shape to the Blue Whale. It is the second largest rorqual after the Blue Whale. The body is brownish grey above and white below. The lower jaw is white on the right side and dark on the left. The dorsal fin is strongly curved and is about 60 cm high. Fin whales have an average of 85 throat grooves that extend to the navel. The mouth has 350-400 baleen plates on each side.
Other Names
Finback Whale
Size
Average length: 19m -20m. Maximum length: 27m. Weight: 70,000kg
Habitat
found in deep oceans and also water as shallow as 30 meters
Food
Fin whales eat mainly crustaceans, and also some squid, and fish. They feed by filtering food between the baleen plates attached to the top jaw.
Breeding
A single calf is born after a gestation period of 12 months. The young are 6.5m long at birth. They are weaned after 6 - 7 months when they are about 11 or 12m long. The calves travel with their mothers to the winter feeding grounds.
Range
found in all oceans of the world, but not common in the tropics or polar oceans with ice.
Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Conservation Status
The conservation status in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals is "endangered".
Classification
| Class: | Mammalia | | Order: | Cetacea | | Family: | Balaenopteridae | | Genus: | Balaenoptera | | Species: | physalus | | Common Name: | Fin Whale |
Relatives in same Genus
Dwarf Minke Whale (B. acutorostrata)
Bryde's Whale (B. edeni)
Blue Whale (B. musculus)
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