ShmoopTube

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

If you thought elephants were big... take a look at these guys. [Elephant and a whale on a beach]

00:18

Whales are the biggest mammals in the world.

00:20

They belong to a group of mammals called Cetacea

00:23

…and they’re in the same family as dolphins and porpoises. [dolphins and porpoises appear]

00:27

Aww.

00:28

That hole on the top of a whale’s head is called a “blowhole”,

00:30

and it’s really just a big ol’ nostril. [water coming out of a whales blow hole]

00:33

That’s what they breathe in and out of.

00:35

Some whales, like the humpback whale, have two nostrils. Lucky them. [a humpback whale with 2 blow holes]

00:40

Whales can do a pretty cool trick.

00:42

They can actually close their blowholes and hold their breath underwater…

00:45

…even without having any fingers to pinch it shut. [hand pinching a mans nostrils]

00:48

Not only that…but some whales can hold their breath for a full hour!

00:52

All right, all right…enough showing off…

00:54

Even though whales swim around underwater, they’re actually not fish. [an orange fish swimming around]

00:59

Like cats, dogs and other animals that live on land, whales are warm-blooded…

01:03

…and their body temperature changes with their surroundings.

01:06

But unlike Fido, they have the advantage of a lot of special fat, called blubber, [blubber shown on a whale]

01:09

to keep them warm even when the water's cold.

01:12

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these magnificent creatures. [a whale bouncing on top of an iceberg]

01:17

We’ll be learning about all the strange and interesting parts of a whale…the fluke,

01:22

flippers, blubber, tail… all that and more.

01:26

What we probably won’t cover is how Pinocchio managed to survive inside Monstro’s belly for so long. [pinocchio inside a belly wandering around]

01:32

Maybe he was lying about that one…

Full Transcript