The populations of all of the whales listed below were brought to the brink of extinction due to whaling activity. In the past, whales were hunted for their oil, meat, bones and blubber, which were all valuable commodities.

Toothed whales have teeth and locate their prey using echolocation.

They feed using comb-like structures known as baleen plates in their mouths to filter prey such as krill (a small crustacean) and small fish from the seawater. This group is divided into two groups: the baleen whales (the parvorder Mysticeti), and the toothed whales (the parvorder Odontoceti). Whales are members of a group of marine mammals called cetaceans. The longest recorded blue whale measured 30 meters (98 ft) from nose to tail, and the heaviest recorded was 219 tons (199 metric tonnes / 196 long tons).Įven Bryde’s whale, the least massive whale in this list of the largest whale species, is around two and a half times heavier than an African bush elephant – the world’s largest land animal!Ī whale is a marine mammal that, like all mammals, breathes air and feeds its young with milk. Not only is the blue whale the largest living whale, but it is also the largest species ever to have lived on Earth. The largest whale species is the blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus). What Is The Largest Whale Species? Blue Whale: the world’s largest whale.

Unless specified, all weights on this page are given in short (US) tons. Discover More About Whales On Active Wild.List Of Ten Of The Largest Whale Species.Discover amazing facts about the world’s largest animals! A list of the top ten largest whale species ranked in (rough) order of mass, from lightest to heaviest.

Largest whale