Today’s post is going to be a whale of a Wild Fact!  Seriously, it will be huge since we are heading to the sea to explore the life of the Minke Whale.  You know what, I just realized that this Wild Fact won’t be that “huge” since the Minke Whale is actually the second smallest of the Baleen Whales.  Yep, they are a type of baleen whale, which means they filter their food.  This is great news if you were concerned about being eaten by a whale during today’s Wild Fact.

There are two Minke Whale sub-species that exist in the world.  They are the Common Minke Whale (also known as the Dwarf Minke Whale) and there is the larger Antarctic Minke Whale.  The Common Minke can be found in the North Atlantic and parts of the North Pacific.  Obviously the Antarctic Minke can be found in the icy waters off the coast of Antarctica.  At least I hope that is where they can be found, otherwise they were given a very odd name. In case you were wondering the Common Minke Whale only grows to about 5 m (15′) in length while the Antarctic variety can grow to about 10 m (30′) in length. Either way, not that big compared to some of the other whales out there.

Like other baleen whales, the Minke Whale is a carnivore that feeds by filtering the water through their bristle-like teeth.  While filtering this water they are looking for krill, plankton, small fish and of course crabs.  Even though their feeding strategy seems to be pretty simple, Minke Whales do have several techniques that helps them capture their prey.   For example, one of their tricks is to trap large groups of fish against the water surface along the shoals.  This ensures the tasty prey can’t escape and the clever ol’ Minke Whale just scoops up the water.

Minke Whale Fast Fact – The Minke Whale will usually take about 3 to 5 short interval breaths before diving deep into the ocean where they will remain anywhere between 2 to 20 minutes.  I wouldn’t be able to hold my breath for 2 minutes… let alone 20.

I guess that just about does it for our Whale fun.  I will see all of you bright and early Friday morning.  After all, you don’t want to miss the last fact of the week, do you?