I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Boron Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
I’ll leave this to the biologists.
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Same – but I’m very interested in the answer!
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Whales like other mammals reproduce sexually. The usual differentiating features of sexes seen externally, including penis and vulva, are however concealed beneath the blubber. All that is evident in the male is a genital slit and in the female a genital slit and a pair of mammary slits (inside which the nipples are found).
Little is known about the breeding habits of most species of great (baleen) whales, with the exception of the Humpback. In this species courtship displays may be a prolonged affair and may involve numerous animals. Occasionally a pair will surface to mate, clasping belly to belly in a relatively brief joining (less than a minute).
Although there have been observations of toothed whale breeding these again have been relatively rare. The mating is likely to be similar to the great whales, however the courtship may be quite different – with a number of smaller toothed whales (e.g. Pilot Whales) courtship is understood to be quite violent.
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good answer James 🙂 my only addition would be that gestation periods are around 10 to 17 months and mums care for their young for up to a couple of years – taking them on migrations to show them the way. It is a hard area to research, but with increasing tracking technology and genetics more and more researchers are starting to answer these questions. Perhaps this is an avenue for enthusiastic future scientists.
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