Whales: The Kids' Times

Game: Humpback Whale Migration (click to play)

Whales

Whales are the largest animals that ever lived on the Earth. They are even larger than the dinosaurs of prehistoric times. All whales belong to a group known as cetaceans ("seh TAY shuhnz"). There are two types of whales

• toothed ("odontocete")
• baleen ("mysticete")

Several species of both toothed and baleen whales have been hunted close to extinction and still face threats to their survival by human activities.

Blue whale [pdf] [350 KB]	Bowhead whale [pdf] [275 KB]
Fin whale [pdf] [225 KB]	Gray whale [pdf] [336 KB]
Humpback whale [pdf] [622 KB]	Northern right whale [pdf] [564 KB]
Sei whale [pdf] [484 KB]	Sperm whale [pdf] [190 KB]

More Information

• NOAA Education Resources on Marine Mammals
• Whales and Other Cetaceans
• More about whales from NOAA's National Marine Mammal Laboratory