My husband and I recently made a trip to Mexico. It’s my favorite place to travel to during whale season. I snapped some good pictures, and our guide gave us a lot of whale facts. I’ve based this week’s game on some of what I learned. See if you can find something new.
1. What kind of whale did Moby Dick have? Sei; Albino Sperm; Gray; Humpback.
2. What do you call the art of carving pictures on whale’s teeth? Scratching; Scrimshaw; Etching; Ambergris.
3. Humpback whales are best known for: Butting heads; singing and breaching; slapping their flukes together; mating for life.
4. Which of the following whales is the largest: Humpback; Sperm; Blue; Beluga.
5. When referring to whales, what does the term “breaching” mean? To bear young; to blow water through their spout; to jump out of, or break, the water; to fight with another whale.
6. How many blowholes does a baleen whale have? One; two; three; none.
7. What’s the thick layer of fat that protects the whales from cold called? Cellulose; secondary skin; blubber; tertiary fat.
8. What is a whale doing when it puts its head underwater, holds its fluke above water, and slaps the surface?
9. What are males called? Stallions; Bulls; Cows; Joey.
10. What’s the name for a group of toothed whales?
ANSWERS
1. Moby Dick was an all-white, very rare Albino Sperm. 2. Scrimshaw. 3. Most whales communicate, or “sing,” by patterns with others of their kind, but humpbacks are most known to sing and breach. 4. Blue. The largest blue whale recovered was 110 feet long. 5. To jump out of the water. 6. Two. 7. Blubber. 8. Lobtailing. 9. Bulls. Females are called cows. 10. Pod.