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California Gray whale - ESCHRECHTIUS ROBUSTUS
Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Whale": "Whale" comes from an old English word, derived from an even more ancient word, all of them simply referring to the animal.
Location: Northern Pacific Ocean.
Habitat: Aquatic. Coastal waters, often in the lee of beaches; in bays and estuaries with very shallow water.
Description: The gray color of the body is usually marked by a profusion of spots, scratches, and other blotches, some caused by the numerous external parasites found on this species. The fins are often damaged (it has no dorsal fin), but the back has 6 to 14 humps on it. There are two, or sometimes four grooves on the throat. The gray whale has about 150 pair of yellowish white baleen plates. The blubber can reach a thickness of 10 in. The seven cervical vertebrae are separate. There are a lot of tactile hairs on the snout and lower jaw. This whale reaches about 50 feet and weighs up to 36 tons.
Behavior: In the 19th century it was possible to see groups of more than 1000 of these whales, but today it is rare to sight more than 40 to 70 together at the same time. They migrate southward in separate groups of pregnant females, adult males, and young males, reaching their winter quarters from California to Mexico in January or February. They then return north again in March or April. It feeds on plankton, but only feeds in the summer months, living off its stored fat for the rest of the year.
Reproduction: Mating occurs in February, and the single young, about 15.5 feet long, is born in the same month a year later.
Go to the Cetacea Page to learn more about the other whale-like animals.
Go to the Index to compare the various Whales found in America Zoo.
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