Baleen whales

We had fun time talking and watching video about whales, specially baleen whales.

They are most big mammals in the world. Blue whales are the biggest whale in the ocean. Male whales use blowhole to sing beautifully and males called bull and female is called cow. Guess what baby whales called? calf. Baleen whales have 2 blowholes and breath in air just like us but they can hold the air much longer than us. Some whales like Sperm whales can hold air for 90 minutes and other species do around 35minutes. Amazing!!

Baleen whales using baleen to feed themselves mostly eat krill and plankton during summer time about 4-5months and they migrates rest of the year.

We had chance to make our own whale.

Sea Otters

Sea Otters are mammals and live close to the shore in the cold Pacific Ocean. The swim through kelp forests and need lots of food and clean water to live. They eat more than 40 different kinds of small animals like clams, crabs,squid, urchins,and others. Sea otters eat their food above the water laying on their  backs and use their stomachs as plates. They use rocks to crack open hard shells.

Sea Otters groom themselves for hours everyday. They scrub their faces and bodies with their paws and also somersault, twist, and turn to washes food scraps off their bodies for their fur to stay clean to be warm. Their fur is thicker than any other animal's. The fur has two layers that outside layer keeps the cold water out and inside layer stays warm and dry.

Baby seat otters are born in the water and they are called pups. Pups are about 2 feet long at birth and mother teaches her pup how to swim, dive, and hunt food. But she does the hunting until the pup is older. A Mother may wrap their pup in kelp to stay in one place while she is away to hunt. Pups starting hunting food around when they are 6 month old and become independent at 1 year old.

Sea otters live in groups called rafts and usually all boys or all girls. Otters in rafts often warp themselves in kelp and may sleep like this side by side.

We watched 3 short videos about how mother otters take care of their pups and using kelp to stay in one place.

We had a chance to make hand otter puppet using paper bag.

Polar bear

We had so much fun watching a video about polar bear. A symbol of the Arctic, polar bears are the world's largest land predator and biggest member of the bear family. With heavy fur, blubber up to four inches thick and black skin that absorbs heat from the sun, polar bears are amazingly well adapted to the Arctic climate. Adult males normally weigh 351 to 546 kilograms (775 to 1,200 pounds). Adult females are much smaller, about 150 to 295 kilograms (330 to 650 pounds). They hunt their main prey there: seals. Polar bears especially like to eat seal blubber. That's because it has a high fat content. They sometimes eat other foods like walruses or beached whales, but seals are their most important food source.

Polar bears mothers usually give birth to twins. Polar bear cubs weigh just over one pound at birth! They are about the size of a stick of butter. They have fine, soft fur. 

Polar bear cubs remain with their mother in the den until they are three or four months old, drinking her rich milk. The cubs snuggle close to mom to stay warm. Pregnant female bears dig snow dens in the fall to give birth—but this is not a true hibernation. They remain in the dens for four to eight months. During that time, they don't eat or drink and must live off their fat reserves.