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15 Wonderfully Weird Facts About Whales

Remember Star Trek IV: The One About The Whales? They plucked those two wonderful behemoths from the streets of San Francisco and whisked them up into space to save Earth from a giant space cigar. You know, it looked like the IRL one from a couple years back. Anyway, Spock could talk to them, that's all that matters. Spock can mind-meld with anything. Totally give Aquaman a run for his Atlantean money, whatever that is. 

We're getting a little off-track here.

What we're doing here today is taking you on one of those whale-watching tours. You'll get all the facts: from whale BFFs to wait, those testicles weigh how much?!? — without having to sit next to some chirpy rando from Cracked blathering on about Star Trek IV or getting a blast of seawater to the noggin. Nope, here’s just a list of some incredible facts about the giant of the sea, that wonderful whale.

15

Female whales have BFFS. Studies have revealed that humpback whales -especially the females s-make friends who will, after not seeing each other for a year, spend significant time with each other while bonding even more than before. The longest friendship was recorded at six years, and these female friendships are believed to be beneficial as the whales involved gave birth to the most calves. CRACKED.COM

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14

The closest living relative to whales is the hippopotamus. The molecular phylogeny shows that these two are likely first cousins. The reason they look so different from each other is that there's a good 40-million-year gap between the fossils of early whales and early hippos. Scientists have yet to find the common link between them. CRACKED.COM

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13

Whales can be divided into two main types. Baleen whales {14 species) have baleen sheets that they use to sieve their prey from seawater, and toothed whales (76 species) have teeth to bite with. Baleen whales are also pretty huge in general-think humpbacks and blue whales - and they have two blowholes where toothed whales only have one. CRACKED.COM

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12

Toothed whales are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet. Pictured: A Beluga whale. Thanks to their large brains they exhibit complex behavior-they can teach and learn from others. CRACKED.COM

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11

North Atlantic right whales have the largest testicles in the world. They weigh in at around 500kg/half a ton, each. CRACKED.COM

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10

Whales get sunburns. Some species have been recorded with blisters on their skin from our powerful sun. Blue whales use pigmentation to try and protect themselves from those UV rays s j just like us s-and sperm whales trigger a stress response in their genes. CRACKED.COM

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9

Not all whales echolocate. Pictured: Beluga whale, a toothed whale that can echolocate. Baleen whales do not echolocate but they do use sounds including singing, moaning, and pulsing to communicate with each other. CRACKED.COM

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8

Fancy, expensive perfumes sometimes come with a dose of whale poop. Ambergris - a substance formed in the digestive system of sperm whales when they ingest hard squid beaks-is a sought-after ingredient, costing more than silver and causing dealers to be all Mafia about it. The current trading price is around $10 to $30 per gram. CRACKED.COM

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7

Whale tails are like fingerprints. No whale tail's the same. Scientists refer to it as their fluke IDs. CRACKED.COM

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6

Grandpa Bowhead Bowhead whales-baleen whales that are found in the Arctic-can live up to 200 years. It's believed that the reason for their longevity has to do with genes that can repair damaged DNA. CRACKED.COM

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5

Whale milk is the texture of toothpaste. A whale's milk is almost 50% fat {cow's milk is 4%), allowing it to travel through water without just scattering and dissolving because the mothers often shoot streams of milk into their baby's mouths. CRACKED.COM

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4

Humpback whales have inspired better wind turbine technology. Humpbacks have little bumps on the edges of their flippers that help them maneuver and make tricky turns at high speeds to generate lift and catch their food. It's called the tubercle effect and it's been used in wind turbine technology to reduce drag and keep turbine blades from stalling. CRACKED.COM

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3

Some whales catch their food using bubbles. Called bubble-net feeding, some whale species have been seen blowing deliberate bubbles with their noses to encircle and capture their food. CRACKED.COM

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2

Many whale species, including orcas, mourn their dead. They exhibit strong social bonds and have been seen carrying their dead with them for days, sometimes weeks. CRACKED.COM

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1

The blue whale is believed to be the largest animal that has ever lived (and it feeds on jelly bean-sized krill.. At a whopping 90 - 110 feet and a colossal 330, ООО pounds, the weight of a blue whale equals that of 24 elephants. CRACKED.COM

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