The blue whale holds the title for the largest animal known to have ever existed on Earth. Its sheer size is a marvel, stretching longer than many modern structures and weighing more than entire herds of land animals. Among its many astonishing physical attributes, one feature stands out: its tongue.
The Astonishing Size of the Blue Whale’s Tongue
The blue whale’s tongue is an anatomical wonder. This single organ can weigh an astounding 10,000 to 15,000 pounds (approximately 4.5 to 6.8 metric tons), comparable to that of a full-grown African elephant. The tongue itself can measure up to 18 feet in length.
The blue whale’s oral cavity is impressive. Its mouth is so vast that it could comfortably accommodate one hundred people. When fully expanded during feeding, the mouth can hold an astonishing volume of water and food, up to 90 metric tons. These dimensions highlight the specialized nature of the blue whale’s feeding strategy, which relies on engulfing massive quantities of water.
The Tongue’s Role in Feeding
Blue whales are filter feeders, consuming vast numbers of small organisms, primarily krill. Unlike toothed whales, they possess thousands of baleen plates hanging from their upper jaw, which act like a giant sieve.
During lunge feeding, the whale accelerates towards a dense patch of krill, opening its mouth wide to engulf enormous amounts of water and prey. As the mouth closes, the water is expelled through the baleen plates, trapping the krill inside. The massive tongue then plays a crucial role, acting like a piston to push the concentrated krill towards the back of the mouth for swallowing. An adult blue whale can consume several tons of krill daily.
Beyond the Tongue: Other Blue Whale Wonders
Beyond its remarkable tongue, the blue whale exhibits other incredible adaptations. An adult blue whale can reach lengths of 82 to 105 feet, longer than three school buses. Its heart, the largest in the animal kingdom, can weigh between 400 and 600 pounds. While often compared to a small car, recent studies suggest it might be slightly smaller, though still powerful, pumping around 60 gallons of blood with each beat.
The blue whale’s lung capacity is astounding, holding approximately 5,000 liters of air. These lungs are highly efficient, exchanging up to 90% of inhaled oxygen into the bloodstream with each breath. Blue whales are among the loudest animals on Earth, producing low-frequency vocalizations that can reach 188 decibels and travel for hundreds of miles underwater. These sounds, which have recently shown a decrease in frequency and occurrence, are influenced by factors like krill availability.
Annually, they undertake long migrations from polar feeding grounds to warmer tropical waters for breeding. Despite their adaptations, blue whales are currently listed as endangered due to historical whaling and ongoing threats such as ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and climate change impacting their food sources.