Portal:Cetaceans/Did you know/November, 2006


 * ...when right whales and humpback whales breach (leap out of the water), seagulls can often be seen darting in to pick up pieces of skin that become dislodged from the breaching whales. Presumably this is an easy source of food for seagulls.
 * ...whales and dolphins don’t sleep in the way humans do. Although we don’t know how they sleep, some scientists believe they sleep with half the brain asleep and half the brain awake, keeping them aware of danger.
 * ...all whales and dolphins have the remains of the pelvis, but it is reduced to two small bones at the rear of the animal.
 * ...the ‘strapped-toothed whale’ is so called because in mature males there are only two teeth in the bottom jaw and these completely ‘strap’ the upper jaw, preventing it from opening more than a few centimetres. How these animals eat is unknown, but it may be that they stun their prey with high intensity sound.
 * ...some cetaceans can dive to depths of more than a kilometre and stay there for more than an hour.