The most spectacular defecation in nature comes from the blue whale. It is like a flood opening, and 2 tons of feces are spewed out in an instant.
However, these schools of fish not only did not escape, but instead “followed the feces” and burrowed into the feces of the blue whales.
blue whale tail
For most animals in the ocean, blue whale feces are a gift of nature. If they can, they hope that blue whales will poop more every day.
So, what is the use of blue whale feces, and why does it pull out so much feces?
blue whale baby swimming
gentle beast
The earth’s oceans have never lacked giant beasts, whether it is the first-generation vertebrate overlord Dengshi fish, or the most famous mosasaur.
But these animals are very ferocious predators, and their jaws have left a bloody mark on biological history.
In the long river of evolution, such a group of animals was born. They are huge but very gentle. They don’t see blood when they eat, and they never take the initiative to attack other animals.
They are the baleen whales known as “gentle giants,” the largest of which is the blue whale, which weighs more than any animal that has ever existed.
Yes, you heard it right, the blue whale is the largest animal in the history of the earth, and none of the previous ichthyosaurs, fin dragons, and mosasaurs are as big as it.
largest animal ever on earth
A blue whale is 30 meters long and weighs about 180 tons. It is named because of its grayish-blue skin. Although it grows large, the food of blue whales is very small. They mainly eat small fish and shrimps. It is an animal called krill.
That’s because blue whales are filter feeders, they don’t have sharp teeth and instead grow baleen like a brush.
Interestingly, baleen is not a tooth, its composition is closer to that of hair or nails.
The origin of baleen is very ghostly, and zoologists have still not been able to say how it evolved, because the ancestors of baleen whales in history first degenerated their teeth and then grew baleen.
whale baleen
As expected of a member of the Artiodactyla family, the evolution of this kind of embarrassing biologists has always come up.
Blue whales are related to hippos on land, and are also distant relatives to pigs, cattle, and sheep. They share a common ancestor, the ancient cloven-hoofed beast.
This is even more unbelievable than that humans and mice are both primates. After all, who would have thought that they could look completely different from their relatives, and mice are quite similar to humans.
Growing up so big, it naturally eats a lot. The blue whale can eat krill the weight of an African elephant in one meal, and the feeling is deep and stuffy.
Blue whale devours krill
The mouth of the blue whale is like a fishing net. Its jaw is very tough. It swallows the sea water into its mouth. Once the mouth is closed, the sea water is drained away through the baleen, but the prey is left behind. Eat in.
If you can eat so much, you will naturally pull more. The blue whale is not only the largest animal in history, but also the most pulled animal in history.
squirting rainbow
Since there is “shit”
The blue whale can pull out more than 2 tons of feces in one row, and the feces are very thin, usually sprayed out.
Let’s assume that the density of this feces is similar to that of water. The volume of 2 tons of feces is 2 cubic meters, which is equivalent to 2,000 liters. Imagine that they are poured on people’s heads, sour and refreshing.
Fortunately, blue whales live in the sea, and we can’t meet their feces, so if divers are unlucky, they may encounter “feces to the head”.
However, it is these stinky feces that many fish in the ocean regard as “poplar nectar”, chasing blue whales to eat feces.
whale defecation
Among these “feces” hunters, there is no shortage of blue whales’ food, krill, which means that the krill’s front feet have just eaten the blue whale’s feces, and the hind feet are eaten by the blue whale, forming a perfect closed loop.
You think that only fish eat blue whale feces. Of course not. After all, blue whale feces are very thin. If they are not eaten quickly, they will dissipate in the ocean and sink to the bottom of the sea.
There are a large number of benthic marine creatures living on the bottom of the sea, and most of them cannot move their bodies quickly, so they can only stay on the bottom of the sea to open their mouths.
whale poop
Generally, there will be ocean currents that bring nutrients, and whale feces are a surprise for them.
I believe that people who eat a fixed meal every day suddenly eat a big meal. Yes, blue whale feces are a big meal for many marine animals.
What are the good things in blue whale feces? Because there are still solids in whale feces, which can be stored in the water for a period of time, it is a long-term food stamp for many animals.
Animal excrement is actually undigested food, and it is counted as the first level according to the transfer of energy. It is impossible for nature to waste any energy.
In the long evolution, whether on land or in the ocean, there are creatures that feed on the dung of other animals. There are dung beetles on land, and there are also various shrimp, crabs and fish in the same ecological niche in the ocean.
The blue whale itself is not the top predator in the ocean. It is closely related to the bottom of the food chain. Without its feces to nourish, there would be no more krill.
At the same time, if the blue whale ingests less than 2 tons of food, it will feel hungry.
Blue whales and krill have formed a wonderful ring, and whoever goes wrong can have a huge impact on each other.
Blue whale’s favorite krill
The last bloom of the whale
There is such a phenomenon in nature, it is called whale fall, which is a natural landscape formed after the death of whales.
Whales, especially baleen whales, are big and fat, weighing dozens or hundreds of tons. After death, due to the gas generated inside, the body will not sink immediately but float on the sea.
At this time, there will be many animals to eat it, the first is the shark, the second is the pinniped, and even there will be another kind of whale – killer whale.
Killer whales are whales
The whale carcass that has eaten most of the meat will sink to the bottom of the sea, and the animals on the bottom will clean it up further. The residual meat and fat in the whale are enough for the creatures on the bottom of the sea to eat for more than a hundred years.
During these more than 100 years, many gorgeous flowers will bloom on the skeleton of whales. They are corals, which form an underwater ecological area based on the remains of whales.
The name of this ecological area is Whale Fall, which is the last gentleness that whales leave to the world.
Whale fall is nature’s gentlest death
Many whales live in the deep sea, especially the animals in the deep sea where there are no fingers. They are also delicious. They eat plankton on the bottom of the sea all the year round.
Only 50 whale falls have been discovered in human history, and more whale falls occurred in the deep sea. Whales are the tourists of the world. They swim almost all over the earth’s oceans.
It’s a pity that the unrestrained life of whales was broken by humans.
creatures on whale
Whale Elegy
Preying on whales has always been the tradition of many ethnic groups, especially those in alpine regions, but the productivity of ancient times was backward, and they could not catch a few whales a year.
With the advent of the industrial age, whaling has gradually become industrialized, and people have more advanced weapons to deal with whales. Whale meat, baleen, bones, fat, etc. are all treasures, which made the number of whales plummet after the 18th century.
Until now, commercial whaling has not stopped, and many countries have carried out whaling activities under the banner of scientific whaling.
Killed whale
Whales rely on sound waves to communicate in the sea. Sound waves travel much faster in the water than in the air. There is communication between whales. When the same kind is killed, their last words will be spread far away.
As the first mammals to go to sea, whales have high IQs. Most whales actually know the situation of their families, and they are more powerless.
Another threat to whales is marine debris, especially discarded fishing nets, which can easily entangle them and cause harm.
The noise from human freighters can also interfere with the sound waves of whales, causing them to get lost in the open ocean and eventually run aground on the beach.
whale stranding
Stranded whales are very dangerous. They will die from their own body weight. Because of the lack of buoyancy, their internal organs will squeeze each other, causing the organs to fail and die.
Whales are an extremely important part of the ecology of the ocean. Their feces and corpses are the rations of low-level creatures. If the number of whales decreases, the entire marine food chain will be affected.
This is a devastating blow to the ocean, and even people are within the reach of this blow.
free whale
