Whales
are huge, but elusive and difficult to see which adds to their mystery
and fascination.
They are highly intelligent animals with an elaborate social life, no
possessions
and the complete freedom of movement in three dimensions. Is it any
wonder that
they are such popular and fascinating animals? - maybe we just want to
be like them! Whales belong to the group of mammals
called
Cetaceans, they are a part of this group along with
dolphins and porpoises. Whales are mammals as are humans,
dogs, cats,
elephants and anguantibos amongst others. This means that they are
not fish.
They breath air and so must return to the surface at regular intervals
to get a
breath. They give birth to live young that stay with the mother for over
a year
and feed on milk produced by the mother. Whales
are warm blooded and have a skeleton similar to our own (though
greatly modified)
the fore limbs are their front flippers and have similar bones in them
to our arms
and hands. The hind-limbs are generally not present at all, though are
represented
in many species by a tiny pair of "free floating" bones (pelvic
vestiges) - not
attached to any others - towards the rear of the animal. In the males of
some species
these bones serve as an insertion for the muscles that control the
penis.
All whales have muscle with a high
level of Myoglobin.
This is a red pigment similar to haemoglobin that stores oxygen in the
muscles for
use during deep dives. When the whale surfaces, the oxygen in the
myoglobin is replaced,
similar to the process that happens in our own muscles during a sprint.
The rear flippers of a whale are called the
flukes,
these have no bone in them at all, being made of tough fibrous material.
It is the
flukes that provide the propulsive power in all Cetaceans with
the forelimbs
controlling direction and being used for communicative and social
functions.
The whale is the largest and most majestic animal to ever inhabit our planet. Originally a land dwelling four-legged creature that returned to the waters we all evolved from millions of years ago, they now populate the earth’s oceans. The oceans once teemed with these wonderful mammals that, like us, breath oxygen, give birth to live offspring and have a complex family- and social structure. But their numbers were decimated by humans for profit and many whale species were driven to the brink of extinction and are still in grave danger of vanishing forever.
Despite an overwhelming majority vote amongst the Earth's population to protect the whales, there are still some nations that kill them for money. Help stop this senseless killing. Learn and educate yourself with facts about whales and begin to understand this majestic animal and how it shares the world we reside in.
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After years of careful development, research, and bringing together
one of the
finest production teams anywhere, National
Wildlife
Federation, Destination
Cinema
and Zephyr Productions
have completed production of
a ground breaking IMAX® film on whales. Whales brings to the
giant
screen the drama, joy and poetry of the underwater domain of some of
the largest
creatures to ever live on earth! The film shows the habitats and lives
of the
Humpback, Right, Blue
and Orca whales, as
well as countless other wondrous
creatures which share their undersea environs or patrol the shores
nearby.
The world premiere of Whales took place at the Museum
of Science in Boston. The film is now
opening at large-format theaters around the world.
