Whales can even get sunburned! A lover of the St-Lawrence river, Frederique joined the Whales Online team as an intern at the beginning of summer She has just completed a certificate in creative writing and will be starting a degree in literature next fall.
Quiet, she uses her sense of observation to soak up her different habitats and to learn more about the flora and fauna of Quebec. Are there any whales still in the area? How long will they…. Some of our readers might be…. Do Whales Have Hair? When seen out of the water, the head of a humpback whale shows the bumps from which hairs grow and baleen protruding from its open mouth.
Harbour seals must be out of the water to wash and dry their fur so that it remains waterproof. The hairiest whale In mammals, hair is not limited to just their fur. We can also observe its baleen, which early observers may have mistaken for a moustache. A skeleton similar to the one in the photo is on display at CIMM. Whiskers of the freshwater dolphin Toothed whales on the other hand shed their hair before or shortly after birth.
Amazon river dolphins search the river bottom for food. Most whales have their hair follicles where land-mammals would have whiskers today. The majority of baleen whales have hair follicles and some, like the humpback whale, still have visible hairs. The bumps on a humpback whale's head are called tubercles and each one contains a hair follicle with a single hair.
If you're lucky enough to get close to a humpback you may be able to see them for yourself! The number of hairs that a whale has is small, typically ranging from depending on the species.
The nostrils were believed to have been moved to the top of the head to assist with living in the ocean. All of these factors combined with the fact that these marine mammals are still born with hair make the evolutionary theory one of the most compelling reason for why hair is still present on these animals, albeit to a lesser degree. While the exact reason some whales are born with hair is still unknown it is a fascinating topic to talk about.
Aloha, We Are Open! Quarantine restrictions were lifted on Oct. Fact Of The Week.
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