Biggest of all!
What is the biggest animal that has ever lived?
It’s not one of the giant dinosaurs of long ago. It’s an animal that is
living right now. It is the blue whale.
A blue whale is so long and wide that five elephants in a row could
stand on its back.
Whales look like big fish. But whales aren’t fish. They are mammals.
They spend all their lives in water, but they breathe air, just as we
do. If a whale stays underwater too long, it drowns.
It seems as if big whales should eat big things. But some of the biggest
of all animals eat the smallest things in the ocean. Blue whales, right
whales, bowheads, and finbacks eat plankton. Plankton is made up of
plants and animals so tiny you can’t see them without a microscope.
Other whales are meat-eaters. Narwhals and bottlenoses eat fish, crabs,
and lobsters. Sperm whales eat fish, too. But a sperm whale’s favorite
food is giant squid. Killer whales eat seals and porpoises.
Once, there were many whales in the seas. But men have hunted whales for
many years. The whales are killed for meat and oil. Now there aren’t
many whales left. The big blue whales have almost all been killed. The
biggest animal that ever lived may soon be gone forever.
