Birdsong’s Blog

Rare Footage of a Blue Whale Feeding!

Dear Whale-Curious Friends,

It’s remarkable! The largest animal in the world feeds on one of the ocean’s smallest creatures. The blue whale, who can grow to be 80-90 feet long and weigh 100-150 tons, eats krill, a small crustacean that averages about 1-2 centimeters in size.

How muck krill does a blue whale need to maintain its size and energy? The blue whale can consume as many as 40 million krill per day, which ends up weighing close to 8,000 pounds of food on a daily basis!

This video by Oregon State University features some rare footage of a blue whale not only feeding on krill, but being selective about which swarms of krill to feed on.
It requires a great deal of energy for a blue whale to slow down to catch its food and then speed itself up again. So the swarms of krill they choose need to large enough provide the whale with more energy than it would expend to hunt!  Sometimes it pays off to be a picky eater!

Want to learn more about the blue whale? Watch our song video, “So Big! Blue Whale!” and read  “The Kids’ Times” by NOAA.

With huge whale love,

Birdsong