How far would you travel for a good meal? If you were a humpback whale, the answer would be five thousand miles. These large sea animals travel at least that far from their winter home of the of Columbia to their summer feeding areas off Antarctica. The distance covered by some types of whale is amazing, especially when you their enormous size. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived and it can weigh as much as thirty elephants. It as no surprise, therefore, to hear that ancient folk legends tell of sailors mistaking these creatures for islands.
The more we about whales, the more wonderful they seem. Some species can hold their breath for more than an hour and dive to a of over 2000 metres. They use a system of sounds known as echolocation to find the fish they eat and they have further sounds to keep in with each other. The noises they produce can travel hundreds of miles underwater. Some species seem to sing complicated songs which of a number of separate themes, sung in a specific order which can last up to half an hour or more. If you ever get the to see one of these great creatures in the wild, you will understand why they have inspired so many legends.