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The family Balaenidae, the right whales, contains two genera and four species. All right whales have no ventral grooves; a distinctive head shape with a strongly arched, narrow rostrum, bowed lower jaw; lower lips that enfold the sides and front of the rostrum; and long, narrow, elastic baleen plates (up to nine times longer than wide) with fine baleen fringes.
The throats of all beaked whales have a bilaterally paired set of grooves that are associated with their unique feeding mechanism, suction feeding. [9] Instead of capturing prey with their teeth, beaked whales suck it into their oral cavity. Suction is aided by the throat grooves, which stretch and expand to accommodate food.
Blainville's beaked whales do not capture prey by biting. They use suction feeding to capture prey. They create low pressure in the mouth by retracting tongue, and using throat grooves to expand throat volume. This creates a lower pressure in the mouth than the surrounding waters, allowing the whale to suck in water and whole prey. [12]
Perrin's beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini) is part of the toothed whale suborder and is one of over 90 known cetaceans in existence today. [3] Beaked whales are part of the family Ziphiidae , which are the second most diverse group out of all marine mammals with over 20 species currently recognized. [ 4 ]
As the whales swim up to the surface to feed they can hold up to 15,000 gallons of sea water in their mouths. [citation needed] Humpback whales have 14 to 35 throat grooves that run from the top of the chin all the way down to the navel. [3] These grooves allow the mouth to expand. [3]
Dwarf sperm whale calves typically start eating solid food once they have reached a size of around 1.35 m (4 ft 5 in) though are not fully weaned until they reach around 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). Toothed whale calves generally start eating solid food at around 6 months, and mothers stop lactating after around 18 to 20 months. [7]
Humpback whale breach sequence. A breach or a lunge is a leap out of the water, also known as cresting. The distinction between the two is fairly arbitrary: cetacean researcher Hal Whitehead defines a breach as any leap in which at least 40% of the animal's body clears the water, and a lunge as a leap with less than 40% clearance. [2]
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