AY Honors/Marine Mammals/Answer Key

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1. Be able to identify three of each of the following and know where each is found. Know at least one by scientific name from each group:

a. Toothed Whales

b. Baleen Whales

c. True Seals

d. Eared Seals

e. Dolphins/Porpoises

f. Walruses (one kind)

g. Sea Otter (one kind)

h. Manatees

2. Know and locate the story of how God used a whale in Bible times.

3. What is the largest mammal in the sea?

Largest is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)

4. Explain the following words:

a. Breaching

Breaching is when a whale leaps into the air and falls on their backs.

b. Echolocation

Echolocation is how whales use sounds to locate objects (such as prey) and to orient themselves in the vast and three-dimensional ocean realm. Earlier, we learned that water is an excellent sound transmitter. Well, whales have capitalized on this characteristic of water to compensate for reduced vision in the sometimes cloudy water of the sea.

When sound is reflected after it strikes an object, it creates an echo. So, whales emit short sounds (called clicks) and locate objects by listening for the reflected echo. The animal can tell how far away the object is by measuring the time it takes for the echo to return to them.

c. Spyhopping

Spyhopping is when a dolphin and whales are in a vertical stance so they can look at there surroundings ubove the water

d. Baleen

e. Pod

f. Harem

g. Plankton

5. Draw a food chain of two different marine mammals.

6. What is the purpose of blubber?

7. Know two reasons that seals are hunted.

8. Describe why seals and dolphins can move so quickly in the water.

9. Do one of the following:

a. Take a trip to an aquarium. Learn about and observe the daily feeding schedule of a marine mammal.

b. Write a 500-word report on a marine mammal. Include pictures.

c. Write a 500-word report on current events involving marine mammals and their environment and how they could be endangered.

References