Most of you would think that the blue whale is the largest animal on the planet. Technically, that’s not entirely false, but it’s not the right answer either.
The subspecies known as the Antarctic blue whale is the largest of the whales. In fact, it is the largest mammal, or quite possibly the largest animal, on the planet.
These gigantic creatures measure up to 30 meters. That’s like lining up two and a half full-size school buses. And they weigh up to 200 tons. That’s equivalent to about 33 African elephants, the largest animal on the planet. However, you probably won’t realize the true size of this huge muscle mass until you see one with your own eyes.
The chances of seeing them were very high at the beginning of the 20th century, when 125,000 whales were still alive. Due to the legalization of commercial whaling for much of the 1900s, Antarctic blue whales are now endangered animals, with a population reduced to just 3,000 individuals. If they were to disappear, the ocean would be overrun by their exclusive diet, krill.
Antarctic blue whales eat an average of two tons of krill a day, while some larger members eat up to six tons.
Here’s what the world’s largest whale can do