THE BOWHEAD WHALE

Skærmbillede 2023-02-16 kl. 13.09.58

ABOUT THE MATERIAL

  • The bowhead whale – the longest-lived mammal in the world
  • The humpback whale – the most complex song in the animal kingdom
  • The narwhal – the unicorn of the ice sea
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You solve the tasks by using

  • Text
  • Audio
  • Drawing tools
  • Pictures
    •  

This part is based on pp. 46-55 – there you will find information about the subject.

Read more about the bowhead whale, the humpback whale and the narwhal.

TASKS ABOUT THE BOWHEAD WHALE

The bowhead whale is a baleen whale; there are around 6.000 bowhead whales in the world.

It can weigh up to 100 tonnes. The young one is called a calf.

The bowhead whale has the thickest layer of blubber of all animals and a head useful as a ram to break the ice.

The warmer climate means that the bowhead whale can migrate through the Northwest Passage.

  • What is a baleen whale, and what other kinds of whales are there?

  • How did the baleen whale adapt to life in extreme cold, surrounded by ice?

  • How does the warmer climate affect the food sources of the bowhead whale?

The humpback whale goes to Greenland to find food; it travels from the Caribbean where it breeds in the winter.

The humpback swims with a speed of up to 27 km/h.  

The humpback whale is a baleen whale with a knotty skin. It is renowned for its complex song.

The song remains a mystery to researchers, but they do know that males in the same area sing the same song.

  • Assume that the journey from the Caribbean to Greenland took around 232 hours. How many kilometres did the humpback whale swim?

  • Why does the humpback whale swim all the long way to Greenland?

  • Might the song of the humpback whale have some evolutionary function? What could that be?

The 2-3 m long tusk of the narwhal is very sensitive as it has 10 million nerve fibres.

This tusk was the inspiration for the myth about the unicorn.

In winter it goes over the continental shelf and into the deep sea, looking for food. It can dive to more than 1.000 metres.

It can weigh up to 1.8 tonnes and become 4-5 m long. It can grow 115 years old.

  • What is the continental shelf?

  • What are nerve fibres?

  • What does the narwhal use its tusk for?

TASKS ABOUT THE BOWHEAD WHALE

The bowhead whale is a baleen whale; there are around 6.000 bowhead whales in the world.

It can weigh up to 100 tonnes. The young one is called a calf.

The bowhead whale has the thickest layer of blubber of all animals and a head useful as a ram to break the ice.

The warmer climate means that the bowhead whale can migrate through the Northwest Passage.

  • What is a baleen whale, and what other kinds of whales are there?

  • How did the baleen whale adapt to life in extreme cold, surrounded by ice?

  • How does the warmer climate affect the food sources of the bowhead whale?

The humpback whale goes to Greenland to find food; it travels from the Caribbean where it breeds in the winter.

The humpback swims with a speed of up to 27 km/h.  

The humpback whale is a baleen whale with a knotty skin. It is renowned for its complex song.

The song remains a mystery to researchers, but they do know that males in the same area sing the same song.

  • Assume that the journey from the Caribbean to Greenland took around 232 hours. How many kilometres did the humpback whale swim?

  • Why does the humpback whale swim all the long way to Greenland?

  • Might the song of the humpback whale have some evolutionary function? What could that be?

The 2-3 m long tusk of the narwhal is very sensitive as it has 10 million nerve fibres.

This tusk was the inspiration for the myth about the unicorn.

In winter it goes over the continental shelf and into the deep sea, looking for food. It can dive to more than 1.000 metres.

It can weigh up to 1.8 tonnes and become 4-5 m long. It can grow 115 years old.

  • What is the continental shelf?

  • What are nerve fibres?

  • What does the narwhal use its tusk for?