Welcome to Fast Facts with Reasons for Hope, I’m Carl Kerby.
Today, we’re talking about one of my favorite subjects – food and the Blue Whale! This ginormous creature survives by eating a tiny crustacean called krill. It will eat 40 million krill a day, or up to 2,000 pounds. When it finds a good hunting ground, these solitary animals come together in pods of up to 60 whales to feed. It feeds in the cool polar waters in order to build up a store of blubber, then it will fast for up to 4 months while it migrates.
How it eats is amazing! The Blue Whale opens its lower jaw to almost 90 degrees and gulps in a swimming pool-size amount of water. The lower jaw then snaps shut, causing the bottom pleats of the whales’ mouth to expand like a water balloon filling up. Using its tongue, it will strain the water through 300 – 400 baleen plates, trapping almost 700 pounds of krill, which it will swallow whole. Wow!
All this occurs in seconds. Which is all the time I have left … so until next time, stay bold!
Carl Kerby is the founder of Reasons for Hope and co-creator of the DeBunked apologetic video series. His radio feature, Fast Facts, is heard weekly on VCY America, Saturdays at 9:25 AM Central.
