Saival - description, habitat, lifestyle

Balaenoptera borealis - this is what a large marine mammal is called in Latin, which belongs to the family of minke whales. It is also called the side-whale, seyval or willow whale. Only representatives of minke whales such as finwal, humpback and blue whale are larger than it.

Seyvals live mainly in the oceans, they also prefer deep seas, where they use mostly strata of water remote from the surface.

Basic description

The average size of this animal is from 12 to 15 meters, but there are larger individuals that can reach 20 meters - this is the record for this period. In size, females, as a rule, are slightly larger than representatives of male seyvals.

In shape, the ivas whales are elongated and rather slender, with a flat and large flattened tail, which passes into the body through a thin isthmus. There are also rather short pectoral fins and an elongated muzzle. And the dorsal fin has a crescent shape and size from 25 to 61 centimeters. The body color is mostly dark gray in color, but there are inclusions of white color.

On the upper part of the mouth there are more than 300 plates of black whalebone. The inner bristles of each plate have a light shade.

Seyval Spread

This whale prefers coastal areas, but does not appear on the surface often. Near the coast, Ivasse representatives choose depths of tens and hundreds of meters, where they go down for swimming. At the same time, they are not particularly professional divers, since every 5-10 minutes it takes to float in order to get a new portion of air.

Nutrition and Behavior

However, in order to eat, saivals float to the surface and begin to swim on their side through swarms of predators. They feed by taking food with a whalebone. Receive about 900 kilograms of small fish, crustaceans, amphipods, copepods and small fish daily.

The behavior of saivals as social animals has not been fully studied for this period. As a rule, they move in relatively small groups of up to five whales, but it is also possible to notice large clusters of saivals where there is a lot of food. The region is rich in food and can attract groups of up to a thousand individuals that act quite cohesively.

Large groups also form during the migration period. A flock of savers are one of the fastest in the entire ocean, a single whale can reach speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour.

Breeding

It is also quite difficult to provide accurate data regarding the families of saivals. According to some sources, males and females form pairs and act as a generalized social unit during the breeding season, however, we will repeat, the exact information about how these whales live in families is extremely scarce. In winter, mating occurs, individuals that live in the northern hemisphere mate in the period from November to February, and the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere reproduce from May to July.

The female’s pregnancy lasts from 10 to 12 months, and ends with the birth of a baby 4.5 meters in size. Large families are also possible, which is quite rare.

During the first 7 months, the cub is fed breast milk. At 10 years old, a young whale becomes sexually mature, and reaches a maximum body size of 25 years. Females give birth annually, however, the current situation in the oceans probably reduces this intensity, and sailes can give birth intermittently for a number of years.

There is also a sharp decline in the number of saivals due to the human factor. Humans regularly destroy quite a significant amount of these whales, and this fact also affects their reproductive activity. On average, the earth (or rather the water) path of the seyval is about 72 years.

Significance for humans and conservation status of saivail

Previously, these whales were actively used in whaling and brought significant income, now their value is reduced. In many ways, this fact is determined by the behavior of the people themselves, who during a certain period quite actively extracted saivals, which provoked not only economic growth in this industry, but also a significant reduction in the population, which was almost catastrophic. The consequences of such human expansion are still being felt.

Fishing began actively in 1950, and after about 15 years reached its maximum development, when more than 25 thousand individuals were destroyed. At the end of the 1970s, the global catch of seyvails was reduced to 150 individuals annually. At this time, about 57 thousand individuals live in the ocean.

It should be noted the upward trend in the population, which is achieved due to the reduction in the population of finwales and blue whales, which also belong to this family, respectively, have overlapping diets and habitats. However, this statement requires additional confirmation, and, in essence, is not optimistic, since it still indicates a decrease in the whale population in the oceans. At the same time, the range of food overlap between sailes and other species of whales (in particular, blue and finals noted earlier) is incomplete, therefore, conclusions about the mutual influence of the population size should be considered carefully.