Blue whales, weighing around 200 tons, feed exclusively on krill and require massive amounts to sustain their large size. Having been hunted to near extinction by historical whaling, blue whales now need krill to fuel their reproduction to recover their populations.

Blue whales eat krill - tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans that live throughout Earth's oceans. The huge whales can eat up to four tonnes of krill every day. Blue whales lunge through large swarms of krill with their mouths open, taking in more food in one mouthful than any other animal on Earth. Krill make up the vast majority of a blue whale's diet.

2017年4月21日 · Krill, which are small two-inch, shrimp-like crustaceans, appear like a lightly colored blob beneath the surface of the water. As the blue whale in the video approaches the patch, it turns on...

Blue whales are filter feeders; their diet consists almost exclusively of krill. They are generally solitary or gather in small groups, and have no well-defined social structure other than mother–calf bonds.

Krill, shrimp-like crustaceans of the family Euphausiidae, are filter-feeders that comb microalgae and smaller zooplankton from the water. However, despite the definition of plankton as ‘drifters’, krill are actively-swimming animals, constantly searching for optimal foraging conditions, while attempting to avoid prey.

2023年9月28日 · Blue whales are the largest animals ever to live on our planet. They feed almost exclusively on krill, straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates (which hang from the roof of the mouth and work like a sieve). Some of the biggest individuals may eat up to 6 tons of krill a day.

Despite being the largest living mammal globally, the blue whale’s primary diet consists almost exclusively of krill, a small oceanic creature that generally measures 1-2 centimeters long. However, a few species of krill can grow close to 6 inches in size.

2023年9月6日 · Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimate that the largest blue whales could consume up to 6 tons of krill a day by straining water through their baleen plates. The baleen plate protrudes from the roof of their mouths and acts like a sieve, filtering out larger fish but allowing the tiny krill to pass ...

In Part Three of our four-part Giants of the Sea series, we’ll hitch a ride on the back of a blue whale to learn about its incredible feeding mechanism. In only 3-5 million years (a short time on the geological scale), blue whales evolved from dolphin-sized ancestors.

The primary diet of blue whales is krill—tiny shrimp-like animals, but fish and copepods (tiny crustaceans) may occasionally be part of the blue whale’s diet. When blue whales hunt for food, they filter feed by swimming toward large schools of krill with their mouth open and closing their mouths around the krill while inflating their throat pleats.