ASK CLAUDIO - DISCOVER THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SCENES
Learn more about the wacky world of underwater marine sex with GREEN PORNO's marine biologist, Dr. Claudio Campagna!
CLICK ON AN ANIMAL TO LEARN MORE:
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THE RIGHT WHALE
Whales come with whaling, a word that accompanies, as a deadly shadow, all representatives of these most unusual creatures that embody the meaning of the word "big." From all species, the Right Whales were so named because they were the "right" whale to kill: slow, fat, floating barrels of oil ready to receive the harpoons.
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RETURN FROM AGONY
Half a century ago, the southern right whale was in a steady tendency to disappear from this world. It had been hunted so viciously that only a few hundred were left. A protective order was overlooked by countries that could not care less about whales, and other endangered marine creatures. Today, the IUCN Red Listing categorizes southern right whales as "Least Concern", a successful return from agony.
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WHALE WARS
The species has a counterpart in the northern hemisphere, but the last time they met was three million years ago, or perhaps even more; the equator is an impenetrable barrier for cold water creatures. Whaling began early for the northern rights, as early as the 11th century. The whaler’s imperative has always been the same: kill them all. And in this case, they may have succeeded, as the northern species has not been as lucky as the southern to recover their numbers.
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MATING BALLS
Right whales disperse in the ocean while foraging, but gather in a few coastal places to mate and give birth. A fixed place of rendezvous might have helped their demise, as it is today helping their protection. Females mate in "mating balls," a scramble competition among several males for the same receptive female. Mating implies copulation. The male "sends" (protrudes) its 2.5 m (8 foot) long penis to the female, and intromission occurs.
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A WHALE OF A TEASE
Females are not easy to mate, even when sexually receptive. Males struggle with their elbows to outmaneuver competitors and be close to the female. She seems to encourage tense moments among contenders by holding her breath while resting at the surface, belly up. Males would then need more than 2.5 m (8 feet) to be successful. But nature has provided them with only 2.5 m, so males wait patiently until she eventually turns back to normal, to breathe air. And life smiles to one, or more than one, or many.
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IT'S ALL ABOUT PROPORTIONS
Right whales may practice sperm competition. This is a self-explanatory phenomenon: although many males may mate, fertilization is still the business of one sperm cell belonging to one of the many mates. Males cannot entice females to be monogamous, so they resort to producing large quantities of sperm. All animals have some amazing features for the book of records, right whales have the size of the testes. Proportionally to their body weight, right whales have perhaps the largest testes in the animal kingdom: 800-1000 kg (almost 2000 lbs) for an animal that weights 60 tons.
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ONE BIG BABY
After 12 months of gestation, a calf will show its tail to the world and will soon be born into the cold waters of the southern oceans. The "baby" is about 5 m long (15 feet) and is nursed by the mother...some say about 600 liters of milk/day (almost 160 gallons).
