Fountains instead of Fingerprints *

We whales are living superlatives. Did you realise that? I’d like to tell you about the wonderful capabilities and special characteristics which the Creator gave us, that you won’t find anywhere else in the animal kingdom. For instance, did you know: (...)

• that there are whales that carry out annual migrations of 10,000 km, just like certain migrating birds? (...)
• that there are whales that can blow a spout of water 15 metres high, just by breathing out?
• that there are whales, that at 3000 metres, hold the deep-diving record?
• that certain whales can generate more than 850 kilowatts of power (your cars only have about one-tenth as much)?
• that some whales have a lung volume of more than 3,000 litres? (You humans have a lung capacity of four, or at most seven, litres.)
• that there are whales that produce milk with a world record butter-fat content of 42 %? (Your mothers’ milk has a butter-fat content of 4.4%, about one-tenth of a whale’s value.)
• that certain whales have tongues so heavy that they weigh as much as two fully grown horses?
• that there are whales with aortas 50 centimetres in diameter, which is about the size of a water-main? (...)

Our habitat is the ocean, but remember, whales are flesh mammals, not fish! We give birth to our young. It is true that the Ree Barsch does this too, but naturally, there is not a single fish that can nurse its young. Even though we live exclusively in the sea, we are actually mammals, and so we also breathe through our lungs. We keep our body temperature fixed at 36.5 degrees Centigrade – regardless of whether we are in the icy waters of Antarctica, or in the warm waters of Bermuda. As you can imagine, these conditions cause a whole group of special problems, but the Creator solved these problems for us in a wonderful way.