Blue Whales: LEVELED BOOK • R

Giant Mammals Blue Whales:

A Reading A–Z Level R Leveled Book

Giant Mammals
Word Count: 1,111

Connections
Writing
Write a poem about blue whales using
facts from the book.
Science
Both blue whales and humans are mammals.
Draw a Venn diagram comparing the
two. Include at least three similarities and
TS OF T
AN
differences.

HE
GI
AN I

D
RL
AL WO

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Written by S. E . Virgilio

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 Words to Know
Blue Whales: baleen insulates

Giant Mammals blubber

esophagus
keratin
krill
flukes sonar
gestation
Cover: A blue whale feeds off the coast of Mexico.

Title page: Two blue whales filter feed off the coast of California.

Page 3: A blue whale raises its fluke in preparation for a deep dive.

Photo Credits:
Front cover, back cover: © Doc White/NPL/Minden Pictures; cover icon: © Elena
Belyakova/iStock/Thinkstock; title page: © Nature Picture Library/Alamy;
page 3: © Tui De Roy/Minden Pictures; page 4 (top): © syntika/iStock/Thinkstock;
page 4 (bottom): © Suzi Eszterhas/ardea.com; page 5: © Christopher Swann/
SpecialistStock/Aurora Photos; page 6 (background): © Andriy Myahkov/iStock/
Thinkstock; page 6 (foreground): © Universal Images Group Limited/Alamy;
page 7: © James Forte/National Geographic Creative; page 8 (main): © Mark
Carwardine/NPL/Minden Pictures; page 8 (inset): © Mcasabar/Dreamstime.com;
page 10 (main): © Richard Herrmann/Minden Pictures; page 10 (inset):
© Jean Paul Ferrero/ardea.com; page 11: © Stocktrek Images, Inc/Alamy; page
12: © Doc White/ardea.com; page 13: © Francois Gohier/ardea.com; page 14:
© Richard Herrmann/Minden Pictures; page 15: © Bud Lehnhausen/Science
Written by S.E. Virgilio Source

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Focus Question Blue Whales: Giant Mammals

Level R Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z LEVEL R
What features allow the blue whale, Written by S.E. Virgilio
Fountas & Pinnell N

a mammal, to survive in water? All rights reserved. Reading Recovery

DRA
30
30
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 How Big Is It?

Human
Height: 6 feet (1.8 m)
Weight: 175 pounds (79.4 kg)

Blue whale
Length: 100 feet (30.5 m), Weight: 200 tons (181.4 mt)

Introduction
Far out at sea, scientists scan the horizon.
They are looking for the largest creature
on Earth. You would think that finding an
Table of Contents enormous animal would be easy, but oceans
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 are vast and wide.

Blowholes and Blubber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Suddenly, a thunderous roar sounds as

a blast of water shoots high into the air. The
A Whole Lot of Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
scientists have found what they were looking
From Sea to Shining Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 for—the mighty, magnificent blue whale.

Those Big Baby Blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Song of the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 A blue whale’s water spout can shoot over 30 feet (9.1 m) in the air.

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 3 4

 What Makes a Blue Whale a Mammal?
A blue whale’s size is impressive. It can
weigh as much as 200 tons (181.4 mt) and be A blue whale breathes
as long as approximately 100 feet (30.5 m). Its air through blowholes
on the top of its head.
tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant.
Its heart is so large that a person could crawl
through its main blood vessels!

A blue whale has a

A blue whale has baleen— layer of fat, called
hairlike structures inside its blubber, that helps
upper jaw. keep it warm.

All mammals
• breathe air • are warm-blooded
• have hair on their bodies • produce milk to feed their
at some stage in their babies
development

The blue whale has a mammoth body. Its

skin actually looks blue underwater, but from
above it looks blue-gray. The underside of
a blue whale sometimes appears to be pale
yellow thanks to tiny organisms called diatoms
A blue whale’s body is as long as a basketball court.
that often hitch rides on the whale’s skin.

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 5 6

 Whale watchers look for flukeprints on
the water’s surface to locate whales.

A whale breathes in and out several times

A flap covers a blue whale’s blowholes to keep out water when it dives. at the surface before beginning a dive. It
uses its flexible spine and wide tail flukes to
Blowholes and Blubber
navigate through the water. Flukes are made
Blue whales live in the sea, but they are up of tissue, not bone, so they are flexible.
not fish. These graceful giants are the world’s Blue whales leave circles called “flukeprints”
largest mammals. Blue whales have lungs on the water’s surface when they dive. These
and breathe air just like humans. They inhale whales usually cruise along at 5 miles per hour
and exhale through two blowholes on top of (8 kmph), but they can travel as fast as 20 miles
their heads. per hour (32 kmph).

In order to breathe, a whale must come to Blue whales can stay underwater for about
the ocean’s surface. The blowholes open and thirty minutes. They are considered shallow
the whale expels air, sending water spouts up divers because they rarely go deeper than
to 30 feet (9.1 m) into the sky. Then the whale 700 feet (213.4 m). In contrast, sperm whales
quickly inhales, filling its massive lungs. All dive about 3,280 feet (1,000 m)—more than
of this happens in under two seconds! four times deeper!

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 7 8

 outer layer
of skin
inner layer
of skin

blubber
Krill (inset) is the main food in a blue whale’s
diet. Krill often swarm near the water’s surface.

A Whole Lot of Little

When blue whales dive, they are searching
for their favorite food—krill. Krill are tiny
muscle
shrimplike creatures that live in large groups.
Swarms of krill can be found near the water’s
surface as well as at ocean depths greater than
6,000 feet (1,829 m).
In addition to keeping whales warm, blubber also helps them float better
and swim faster.
It may seem strange that the largest animal
Ocean water can be frigid at such depths, in the world feeds on one of the smallest. Blue
but that’s not a problem for blue whales. Like whales are gargantuan, but their throats are
all sea mammals, blue whales have a layer of actually very narrow. Their esophagus is only
fat called blubber just beneath their skin. The inches wide, so they cannot swallow anything
blubber insulates them from the deep water’s large. Blue whales also have no teeth for
chilly temperatures. chewing. They must swallow their food whole.

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 9 10

 Where Blue Whales Live

baleen NORTH EUROPE ASIA

AMERICA
ATLANTIC
OCEAN PACIFIC
AFRICA OCEAN
PACIFIC INDIAN
OCEAN SOUTH OCEAN
AMERICA AUSTRALIA

A blue whale has up to eight hundred baleen plates in its mouth. ANTARCTICA
= Blue whale range
Instead of teeth, blue whales have plates
of baleen on their upper jaws. Baleen is made From Sea to Shining Sea
of keratin, the same material in our hair and Blue whales can be found gliding through
fingernails. Baleen plates are like a mustache the depths of every ocean on our planet. They
growing inside a whale’s mouth. travel alone or in pairs, going wherever krill
Baleen works like a filter. A blue whale live. During the summer months, blue whales
opens its mouth and takes a gulp of seawater feed in polar waters. When winter comes, both
full of swimming krill. The whale’s throat the krill and the whales migrate toward the
expands to hold thousands of gallons of equator. A favorite gathering spot for many
seawater. Then the whale closes its mouth and blue whales is the Costa Rica Dome, off the
uses its tongue to push the seawater through southern coast of Central America.
the baleen and back out into the sea. Because
krill cannot pass through the baleen, they The grooves on a blue
stay trapped inside the whale’s mouth and are whale’s throat expand to help
swallowed whole. A blue whale eats about forty it gulp up to 17,000 gallons
(64,352 L) of water at a time.
million krill each day.

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 11 12

 Those Big Baby Blues
Female blue whales give birth when they
are in warmer water. Their gestation period
lasts approximately ten to twelve months. A
female whale gives birth every two or three
years. Baby blue whales, called calves, weigh Whale songs are too deep and low for humans to hear without special
equipment.
more than 5,000 pounds (2,268 kg) when they
are born. Within minutes of birth, a calf swims Song of the Sea
to the surface with its mother for air. Blue whales are not only the largest
animals in the world, they are also the loudest.
These whales can produce sounds louder
than a jet engine! Whale “songs” can travel
for miles through the water. Even though
whale sounds are loud, they are impossible
for people to hear without special equipment.

Some scientists think whales use sonar

to help them find their way through dark
ocean waters, much the way bats navigate.
Blue whales give birth in warm waters. Calves have little insulating blubber
when first born.
Other scientists think whales sing to
communicate with each other.
The calf and its mother have a strong bond.
They remain together for many months while Scientists do know that only male whales
the calf drinks milk and gains over 200 pounds sing. They have also discovered that whales
(90.7 kg) a day. After about a year, it leaves its in different parts of the world sing slightly
mother and becomes independent. different songs.

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 13 14

 Conclusion Glossary
Whale songs are just one of the behaviors baleen (n.) a material in the mouth of certain
of blue whales that scientists hope to better whales that filters food from
ocean water (p. 11)
understand. Much is still unknown about the
habits of these enormous creatures. blubber (n.) fat under the skin that keeps
marine mammals warm (p. 9)
In the early to mid-twentieth century, so esophagus (n.) the muscle-lined tube that carries
many blue whales were hunted that they were food from the throat to the
nearly driven to extinction. Their numbers stomach (p. 10)
have only slightly recovered since then. As an flukes (n.) the two halves of a whale’s tail
endangered species, blue whales are protected (p. 8)
by the International Whaling Commission. gestation (n.) the period when a baby develops
Despite these efforts, it is estimated that inside its mother’s body before
being born; the development that
only ten to twenty-five thousand of these
occurs during this time (p. 13)
magnificent creatures survive today.
insulates (v.) prevents the transfer of heat (p. 9)
Scientists continue keratin (n.) a strong material produced by the
their research, hoping to bodies of some animals that
acquire new knowledge makes up hair, hooves, claws,
about these gentle feathers, and fingernails (p. 11)
giants to help ensure krill (n.) tiny crustaceans that live in
their survival for many oceans and are food for many
other animals (p. 10)
generations to come.
sonar (n.) a system that sends high-
Once, over three hundred thousand frequency sound waves through
blue whales lived in the world’s
oceans. Now there are only about
water and registers the vibrations
ten to twenty-five thousand. bounced back by an object (p. 14)

Blue Whales: Giant Mammals • Level R 15 16