The female then advances by using graceful contact, grazing the male with her flippers until they both lye belly-to-belly. The trio will stay together for up to an hour, mating several times which can last up to two minutes, concluding with a mighty shudder. While this process takes place, the second male is on the far side of the female, forming as an aid or brace to hold her next to her mate.
Gray whales spend winters mating and giving birth from January to March in the warm waters of Baja California, Mexico. Also, they are the only whale that bears their young in warm, shallow, sheltered bays and lagoons.
The gestation period for gray whales is Talk about a long pregnancy! How miserable a human being would be if they were pregnant for that long! Gray whales reach their sexual maturity around 5 to 11 years of age.
Both sexes weigh up to tons. Gray whales make gurgles and warbling sounds, but nobody really understands what these sounds mean. Gray whales have streamlined bodies with narrow, tapered heads with the upper jaw slightly overlapping the lower jaw.
Its fluke is about 10 feet across, pointed at the tips, and deeply notched in the center; there are also grooves on the ventral throat. They also have eye lids, I have also talked to some scientist that say you can tell the age of a gray whale by the protein in their eyes during an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
No, the gray whale is in the sub-order Mysticeti; the Mysticeti whales have a baleen instead of teeth. Gray whales reach sexual maturity somewhere between 5 and 11 years of age, a gray whale that lives to be 40 years old could have as many as 18 calves. Gestation is months; migration and reproduction are connected, since it is best for the mothers to reach warm waters before giving birth. She feasts for herself and her unborn baby and migrates south in fall or winter to the nursery lagoons to give birth.
By the time she reaches the warm lagoons, the baby has been developing for months and is ready for birth. A female usually has one calf every two years. Newborns are dark gray to black, some may have distinctive white markings, and a calf weighs between 1,, pounds. Babies weigh between 1,, pounds when they are about 15 feet long. Mating and calving occur mainly in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, the shallow, warm lagoons are great nurseries.
Calving and mating are sometimes seen during the migration. The warm water helps the calves stay warm until they gain blubber, also the salty water makes the babies more buoyant, so it is easier for them to nurse. It allows the calves to build up a thick layer of blubber, they need blubber for energy to swim during the northward migration, and blubber keeps them warm in the colder waters.
The mother supports her calf at the surface for its first few breaths of air; she then brings the baby up to the surface with her own back and flukes. Calves are usually born in late December to early February in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico, more than half of the births occur in Laguna Ojo de Liebre.
Within about three hours of birth, a calf can keep itself afloat and swim on a steady course, a calf may rest on its mothers back or fins until it becomes a stronger swimmer. Gray whales feed on small crustaceans such as amphipods, and tube worms found in bottom sediments, they can eat a ton a day of shrimp like amphipods. Gray whales are like cattle on an open range, they travel wherever they can find food. I have seen the resident grays whales off Depoe Bay feed for weeks in one area, then move miles and feed for a month.
Since gray whales have no teeth, they capture and strain their baleen, which hangs from the roof of the mouth; grays are the only bottom feeding whales.
When they feed, a whale dives to the bottom, rolls on its right side and gulps mouthfuls of mud from the bottom. As the whale closes its mouth, water and sediments squirt out through the baleen plates. This leaves the amphipods stuck to the baleen inside their mouths.
Whales then use their tongues to loosen the amphipods from the baleen, and swallow. Baleen whales have a series of fringed, overlapping baleen plates hanging like curtains from each side of the upper jaw. Baleen is made of a fingernail-like material called keratin. The plates are off-white and about inch-long.
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The birds and the bees may have their own tune, but when it comes to sex in the animal kingdom, whales put on quite a show. Oceans Whales and Dolphins.
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