Quick Take
- A wild gray whale chose to stay alongside a tour boat in Baja California, and its behavior soon had passengers reaching over the side. See the encounter →
- When the whale opened its mouth, tourists got a close-up look, though what they thought they were seeing wasn't what it actually was. Spot the baleen up close →
- A gray whale looks manageable next to a small boat, but that impression changes once you learn how it compares to the tallest animal on land. See the size comparison →
- Gray whales have no teeth, yet they're highly effective hunters, and their feeding method is stranger than most people expect. Discover how they feed →
When we think of friendly animals, dogs, cats, horses, and rabbits probably come to mind first. Wild animals are different. They are not domesticated pets, but some species can still show remarkable curiosity or tolerance around people. A widely cited 2011 study estimated that Earth is home to about 8.7 million eukaryotic species, which means animal behavior comes in just about every form imaginable. Gray whales provide one of the more surprising examples, especially when they decide to approach a boat on their own.
Gray Whale Spotted in Baja California
The short YouTube video clip seen at the top of this blog post takes us to Baja California Sur in Mexico. Eastern North Pacific gray whales migrate south each year to spend the winter in the lagoons and coastal waters off Baja California, where calves are also born. Baja Wild Adventures, the operator credited with the clip, runs gray whale trips in Magdalena Bay. In the video, one whale approaches a stopped tour boat and lingers right alongside the passengers.
Tourists Pet Massive Gray Whale
As the video begins, the tour boat has stopped while the massive gray whale surfaces beside it. That is impressive enough on its own. NOAA documents gray whales showing curiosity toward boats, and whale-initiated approaches are particularly well known in some of their wintering areas around Baja California. Of course, we can’t know exactly what this particular whale was thinking, but it certainly did not seem eager to leave.
The people aboard the boat reach down to touch the whale as it remains alongside them. At one point, it opens its mouth and gives everyone an unusually close look inside. What might look like a mouthful of strange teeth is actually something completely different. Gray whales do not have teeth at all. They have baleen.
How Large Are Gray Whales?
Gray whales like to feed on amphipods.
©jo Crebbin/Shutterstock.com
Seeing only the head of a gray whale next to a small boat does not quite show how enormous these animals really are. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gray whales typically measure about 42 to 49 feet long and can weigh around 90,000 pounds. Females are generally a little larger than males.
For some perspective, the tallest land animal alive is the giraffe, with adult males reaching around 18 feet tall. A 49-foot gray whale would measure more than two and a half times that height from head to tail. It is one thing to read those numbers. It is another to have an animal that size suddenly surface beside your boat.
Do Gray Whales Have Teeth?
Gray whales do not have teeth. They belong to the group known as baleen whales, which use rows of flexible plates instead. As Discover Wildlife explains, gray whales use baleen rather than teeth to capture their food. They are primarily bottom feeders, often scooping up sediment from the seafloor and filtering out small animals such as amphipods.
Gray whales have roughly 130 to 180 coarse baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. Baleen is made from keratin, a structural protein also found in humans’ nails and hair. The plates work like a giant filter, allowing water and sediment to pass out while trapping prey inside the whale’s mouth. So the tourists in the video did get an impressive look inside a gray whale’s mouth. They just weren’t looking at teeth.
