Animals and Habitats: Supplemental Guide 8A | Animals of the Saltwater Habitat 165 Show image 8A-14: Blue whale blowhole
The blue whale spends all its time living in deep water, but unlike
fi sh, it can’t breathe underwater because it does not have gills. It
needs to breathe air just like we do. The blue whale can hold its
breath and stay under the water for as long as thirty minutes before
eventually coming up for air. It breathes using blowholes on the top
of its head. Sometimes, when it does come up for air, it breathes out
a huge fountain of water from the blowholes.
Blue whales are carnivores. They eat lots of food to build up their
blubber during the summer months when food is easy to fi nd. Blue
whales eat teeny, tiny sea creatures called plankton. The plankton
that blue whales eat are small shrimp-like shellfi sh that are about
the size of your little fi nger. It’s incredible to think that the biggest
animal on Earth eats one of the smallest animals on Earth.
The ocean is so huge and deep that we could spend all year
looking at the plants and animals that live there and still not see
them all. In fact, there are still many living things in the ocean that
people—and adventurous rats—have not even discovered yet. I
hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the animals in this saltwater
habitat in the Pacifi c Ocean. We still have one more stop to make
on our worldwide tour of habitats. I’ll see you next time!Discussing the Read-Aloud 15 minutes
Comprehension Questions 10 minutes
- Inferential What makes a water habitat a saltwater habitat?
(The water contains lots of salt.) - Inferential Name the fi ve oceans on Earth. (Arctic, Atlantic,
Pacifi c, Indian, Southern) Are oceans freshwater or saltwater
habitats? (saltwater) - Inferential How would you describe the ocean fl oor? Is it
fl at and level, or does it go up and down? (It goes up and
down, or slopes, just like land outside of the oceans; it has
mountains and valleys.)