Why Are Marine Mammals So BIG!?
Sea otters are the smallest marine mammal but still the world’s biggest weasel. And the largest marine mammal, the blue whale, is the biggest animal the planet has ever seen. Bigger than the biggest dinosaur. But why? Why are whales so big?
00:00 - Biggest Animal of All Time
01:01 - Why Are Marine Mammals So Big?
01:32 - Walrus Facts
02:05 - How Much Do Walruses Weigh?
02:53 - Why Are Ocean Animals So Big?
03:36 - How Do Sea Otters Stay Warm?
04:51 - Blue Whale Size
05:18 - What Is Baleen?
06:27 - How Much Do Blue Whales Eat?
07:31 - Protecting Marine Mammals
For a long time, scientists thought gravity was the reason marine mammals evolved to be so massive. The thinking went that the buoyancy of water and the ability to float made it so these animals didn’t have to support their body weight on legs and bones.
However, a new study from Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences found that the truth is the exact opposite... It's not that living in the ocean allows you to be a big animal, but that you NEED to be a big animal in order to live in the ocean. Because the ocean is cold place and heat loss is 27 times faster in water than in air. The bigger you are the more heat you retain. But when you're small, you lose heat back into the water so fast that the only way to generate enough heat to stay warm… is to eat. A lot.
Sea otters are a great example since they’re the smallest marine mammal and the only one without a layer of blubber. Their metabolic rate at rest is about three times higher than that of similar sized land mammals. Every single day a sea otter will eat a quarter of their body weight. So a 40 pound sea otter will eat 10 pounds of clams, crabs, and mussels in one day.
Humans only need to eat about 2 percent of our body mass per day - so 3 pounds of food for a 155-pound person. Blue whales tip the scales at over 300,000 pounds… and if they needed to eat as much as a sea otter in order to stay warm… that would be 75,000 pounds of food in a day. There is simply no way for them to eat that much. So not only have they evolved into massive creatures that trap body heat.
Instead of teeth, baleen whales have plates of keratin from which they get their name. These baleen plates are essentially filters inside their mouths. When they feed, a baleen whale opens its mouth to take in water and then pushes the water out. Animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and swallowed by the whale.
Because of their size, and efficient ways of feeding, blue whales only need to eat about 8,500 pounds of krill a day. Which is still the equivalent of a full grown male hippo and unfortunately also means that these whales are ingesting an enormous amount of pollutants. Which I talk about, in this video here. • The Shocking Truth Abo...
Links & Sources
[1] www.science.org/content/artic...
[2] www.nationalgeographic.com/an...
[3] www.scienceabc.com/nature/ani...
[4] • Measuring Walrus metab...
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#bluewhales #marinebiology #kpassionate
Пікірлер: 89
Apparently, not all of the cards are showing up when I point to them for whatever reason. Here are the links in case you're interested. Whales & Microplastics: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZZZkzKuQoNHLpbw.html Metabolism of Juvenile Walruses: kzread.info/dash/bejne/qYJl1bd8qNfZcdo.html
@nathanhighlander
Жыл бұрын
☺ what you do is awesome!
Awesome channel and I love how professionally everything is filmed/edited/talked about. I’m consider myself an amateur biologist and it’s awesome and refreshing to have something explained so concisely to you by an expert. Keep up the great work!
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
That’s so great to hear! Thank you for the feedback
Water weasels, whistling walruses and whopping-great whales 😊 Cheers!
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Love it!
Yep, it's the good old "SurfaceArea/Volume' ratio. And thermal-mass is a function of volume, while heat-loss is a function of surface area.
@mortshare7037
Жыл бұрын
Called the cube-square law: volume (and thus mass) increases with the cube of their linear size while the surface area increases with the square of their linear dimensions.
@John_Weiss
Жыл бұрын
@@mortshare7037 *_Thank You!!!_* I knew the Cube-Square Law was what it's called, but I couldn't remember.
Another great video KP! Thanks for making learning about all of these guys so much fun 🎉🦦🐳
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Glad you like it!
Love your enthusiasm; great job. I hope for more videos from you. Stay safe.
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Thank you! Glad you enjoy the channel.
So educational and satisfying to watch 😮❤
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching!
Continue educating us , you're so kind 💛
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching!
He is so sweet and cute❤
Great Video Kristyn. Thanks for the images and info. Well done 😊❤🐬
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching!
While our marine friends developed living in their environment through food, we developed living in ours through our problem solving skills and tech. I think we need to utilise ours in better ways; we can't take care of this planet alone or do it the same way as they can.
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
True
Wow I’m so glad I checked this out bc I still was under the gravity impression of ocean gigantism! So so cool and I love Balzak he’s a cute big guy
Wow, your content quality is amazing. Found you this morning and subscribed. Thanks for your contributions to science and education.
@KPassionate
4 ай бұрын
Thank you! I’m glad you like it
Perfect for our homeschool zoology unit on marine mammals. Thanks.
Oh so the large size of marine mammals is about thermal regulation... makes sense thank you!
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Cool right???
@someguy79
Жыл бұрын
@@KPassionate punintentionally cool ;3
Love the bloopers haha
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Hahaha I really like them too
Thanks for your information. I have a Bob talbert temember valdez poster with a sea otter and ladybug. The oil spill happened in Alaska in 1989 by Exxon. I love this poster.
Excellent video and I really like your presentation. I grew up with Jaques Cousteau and have always loved marine life, frankly all the animals! When you look at all the different kinds of animals, for me, I think oh my gosh, God must have had soo much fun (and a sense of humour for some) of the animals he created 🕊🇨🇦♥️🕊
That's me hiding my food from my cousin's.
When you point to the link, there is nothing there. Been noticing that recently. Q: Do you neuter the walrus that aren't released back into the wild? Or are they used in breeding programs?
@someguy79
Жыл бұрын
check your annotation settings or whatever it is the little info icon in the top right corner .. yours might be off
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
They are allowed to breed if they want. Most do 😂
@gabriellafox7948
Жыл бұрын
No problem for me, both links/cards were there!
Hey KP, what do you mean by "three times higher" vis metabolic rate. Like 3n or n+3xn? That phrasing is always unclear.
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
3n
@mojrimibnharb4584
Жыл бұрын
@@KPassionate Thank you. Can you just say "three times as..." from now? I'm seeing this "x times higher" and "x times smaller" a lot lately and it's really confusing.
Amazing just like you 🙏🦭🐋
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Wow, thank you
@timmy1196
Жыл бұрын
@@KPassionate your welcome all the way from AUSTRALIA it's 4:46am here lol 🙏
Is this why the Saltwater croc is so much bigger than the Nike Croc?
MAN, I'D LOVE TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH A WALRUS. FASCINATING 🐳
I understand about eating to maintain body heat. Even our domestic pets need more food in cold weather.
I feel a pang of constant guilt for being human. 🥺
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
There are so many good things we do too!
@TheMichaelStott
Жыл бұрын
Guilt tells us we did something wrong which allows us to plan and work on making things right 🙂 On the other hand shame tell us we are the problem which leads down a path of not wanting to do anything. You can be part of positive change no matter how small you can do 🤗 Guilt can be a guiding light while shame blows it out.
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
@@TheMichaelStott this was a really cool explanation! And so motivational. Thank you!
This lady is so nice and cleaver
Does marine otters from South America count as a marine mammal though? They are pretty small...
@someguy79
Жыл бұрын
i think so and that would make sense in warmer waters they wouldn't need to be as large, right?
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Great question! There seems to be some debate about the classification of marine otters. Some sources say they are marine mammals while others disagree. The species is poorly understood and relatively unknown, unfortunately. Unlike sea otters who are almost exclusively aquatic, marine otters spend a majority of their time on land and are often considered quasi-marine mammals like Arctic foxes.
@vincentx2850
Жыл бұрын
@@someguy79 the water they in habit is really cold due to the Humboldt current, and their range extend all the way down to the very southern tip of the continent, so I think KP's argument that they are not fully aquatic and spend significant amount of time on land is probably the reason why.
@someguy79
Жыл бұрын
@@vincentx2850 clearly that makes more sense and i didn't check hemispheric bias ;3 thank you for the polite response
@vincentx2850
Жыл бұрын
@@KPassionate This I think is right, and I guess the same apply for the recently extinct sea mink, though sea mink is still very big for a mink.
Tutto il mondo animale è fantastico, ogni animale ha un suo modo per esserlo, spero che la razza umana sia all'altezza di essere tale 🥰🙂🇮🇹
You don’t even need to compare sea otters by size with humans. Just imagine eating 10lbs of meat everyday right now regardless of size. Impressive
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
True! Impressive on all scales
Why do they put those silver colored caps on their teeth
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Walrus tusks lack protective enamel. They can easily chip, crack, and even break their tusks. This happens often in the wild and can lead to life threatening infections because the roots grow deep into the sinuses and very close to the brain. We put caps on the tusks to protect them and prevent them from getting damaged. This allows them to grow long and healthy!
What your rubberboots name❤❤❤
Were you from ❤❤❤
If it's big it's hungry.
I would love to work at your place. can you help me? I like animals very much
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
I have videos on how to become a marine mammal trainer. Check them out!
@l.cwithyoutube2575
Жыл бұрын
@@KPassionate what is your counter
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
@@l.cwithyoutube2575 counter?
@l.cwithyoutube2575
Жыл бұрын
@@KPassionate Where are you?
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
@@l.cwithyoutube2575 Washington
Men of culture we meet again 🙏
first world proble, you have to be woking on Walmart or Burger king
kilometers per hour is km/h not kh
@doubleagentxv120
Жыл бұрын
This is my fault as her editor. Even though we lived in Canada for 12 years I never fully converted.
Idk. Zoos are unethical. How does what you do inspire people to treat animals well? I feel it inspires people to view animals as entertainment.
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Why do you think all zoos are unethical? It has been proven through scientific studies that people learn more from seeing animals in zoos than from watching them on TV and are inspired to go make the world a better place
I think maybe your video titles are too long and convoluted? Just my two cents of advice
@KPassionate
Жыл бұрын
Thanks for the feedback!