Whale Facts for Kids

A Picture of Whales
  • Common Name: Whale
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Chordata
  • Class: Mammalia
  • Order: Artiodactyla
  • Suborder: Whippomorpha
  • Infraorder: Cetacea

15 Whale Facts for Kids

  1. Whales are cetaceans.
  2. Whales are marine mammals, even though they spend 99.9% of their time in the water.
  3. Whales breathe air just like humans, they need to come to the surface regularly to breathe.
  4. There are two types of whales, the toothed whale and the baleen whale.
  5. Whales are very vocal and can produce sounds that can be heard for miles underwater.
  6. Whales can weigh between 500 pounds and 200 tons.
  7. Whales can reach lengths between 9 and 98 feet long.
  8. A male whale is called a bull.
  9. A female whale is called a cow.
  10. A baby whale is called a calf.
  11. Whales are live birth animals and it takes nine to ten months from conception until birth.
  12. Some whales are one of the longest living animals on our planet. The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) can live to be over 200 years old.
  13. The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was almost hunted to extinction. Before a moratorium was placed in 1996, their population declined by around 90%.
  14. The killer whale (Orcinus orca) is an apex predator and there is no other living animal that preys on them, besides humans.
  15. The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest animal ever known to have existed, both living and extinct.

Additional Resources on Whales

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