Whale Watching Cape Cod

Is a whale a mammal or a fisha The whales have teetha How sleep whalea Whales playa These are some fun questions that you might think when you're out of your whale watching adventure.

Even if they live in the ocean, the whales are not fish they are mammals. They breathe the same air so land animals. They are warm-blooded and have a thick layer of fat called fat under the skin that protects them from cold.

The male whale is called a bull, the female is called a cow and baby whale is called a calf. Scientists call cetaceans whales (pronounced "Seh-TAY-leaks"), which is Latin for "whale". Most of the whales, you will see off the coast of Cape Cod will humpback whales. Their Latin name is Megaptera novaenglie, which means "great wings in New England."

There are two types of whales: toothed whales and baleen whales. Toothed whales catch fish and other marine animals with their teeth. Baleen whales have no teeth. Instead, they strain food from the water with their comb-like baleen plates that are in their upper jaw. They swallow fish schools or millions of tiny sea creatures called plankton.

Most toothed whales are smaller than baleen whales. whales dolphins, porpoises, orcas and whales are all teeth. Toothed whales have one nostril or "blow-hole", baleen whales have two. In whale exhales, hot air and moisture from the lungs causes a spray called a blow or spout. You can identify whales by the shape of their shots of mist.

Two lobes form a flat tail of a whale, or "legs". A whale swims by moving its moat, which does not contain bone, up and down like a paddle. Fish swim by moving their tail from left to right.

Have you ever wondered how whales sleepa The whales never sleep. At least not in the same way we do. Whales are voluntary breathers, meaning they have to think about every time they take a breath. Humans can breathe, even if she is unconscious, we are involuntary breathers. Some scientists believe that whales are able to sleeping unihemispherical. This means they can close half their brain at a time when the active half of their brain reminds them to breathe. Sometimes the whales are seen "logging" or floating to the surface of the water - this is perhaps a sleeping bag whale!

Whales can be very sociable animals. They often travel in pairs or in groups called pods. Many species such breach or jump out of the water. Some tail lob with their feet above the surface and splashing hard. Others raise their heads straight out of the water. This is called spy hopping.

Maybe you spy a bit of fun on your behavior whale watching!