Right Whale Feeding and BreedingWhen it comes to right whales, these mammals have a peculiarly more unvaried diet than many of the other baleen whales. The right whale solely feeds on organisms such as plankton, krill and copepods. Right whales have over 220 fringed and overlapping plates on both sides of its upper jaw in the place of teeth. The plates on the right whale are made of only keratin and this keratin is seen to fray out into very fine hairs inside the mouth of the whale. These plates are important for the digestion of the various organisms that the right whale eats. The plates are also black in color and they have a length that is often over 7 feet in most cases. Just as cattle are on land, right whales are seen as grazers of the ocean by many who study them because of their eating habits. They often swim very slowly with their mouths hanging open in anticipation of the prey they need to survive in their natural habitats. When water flows through the right whale’s open mouth krill and other organisms become trapped on the inside of the mouth near the right whale’s tongue.In addition to feeding in a particular way the right whales also mate in a particular way as well with males reaching sexual maturity when they get to about 40 feet in length. Though these whales have been studied extensively little has been discovered pertaining to what age a right whale mates. The female of the species reaches sexual maturity at an increased length than the males at 45 feet. The right whales are one of the most caring of the whale species as the right whale is a parent for about a year before their offspring are ready to make it on their own steam. In terms of courtship behavior the right whales will often congregate in groups of 20-30 in order to socialize and mate. Though this is so during mating times the right whale will often stay in a group of 2-3 during other times of the year.
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