Animal of the Week, July 19, 2017—a whale of a time

A little over 6 months ago, AOTW surprised (not very) many by making an appearance in 2017. The occasion that breathed life back into the old blog was Dippy's retirement from the entrance hall at the Natural History Museum in London. Well, it seems only fitting that I should follow this up with a post on the installation of Hope, the 25 metre blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) skeleton that now presides over the space.

Open to the public on July 14, I naturally took the day off work to go see (also it was the day before my birthday so I figured, treat yo'sel grrrl), and the visit was worth the opening-day queues. One knows whales are big, for sure, and the best way to get that impression would undoubtedly be to get up close in the wild. But few people will ever get the chance to do that, and anyone lucky enough to go on a whale-watching trip might not see more than a distant fin or tail fluke. But standing next to, or underneath, the skull of the largest mammal known to have lived is a remarkable experience.

Blue whales reach up to 30 metres in length, their skull alone reaching 6 metres, and they can weigh as much as 180 tonnes (around 90 great white sharks or 12 000 badgers). Their massive size likely evolved fairly recently to adapt to a patchy food distribution of food occurring in great densities. Blue whales can travel large distances from one patch of krill to another, and when they arrive swallow the enormous amounts of food in one go. Hunted almost to extinction in the twentieth century  as part of the whaling trade, populations are recovering, although climate change and ocean pollution could severely hamper their full recovery, so any attempt to reintroduce whaling or reduce their protection would be shortsighted in the extreme.

The name Hope, given to the skeleton, is a little cringeworthy if well intentioned. The museum hopes the whale will inspire people to be interested in the wonders of natural history and to think more about making space for the creatures with which we share the planet. Although, I can't help thinking that Whaley McWhaleface would have been a better choice.

ADDENDUM: After further consideration, I think Bluey McWhaleface is a better name than Whaley McWhaleface. That opens up naming for the whole family of skeletons—Minke McWhaleface, Righty McWhaleface, Fin McWhaleface, Killer McWhaleface, Bowie McWhaleface and, of course, Spermy McWhaleface.