INTELLIGENCE, POWER, 



weaning at about seven months until it is two years old it 

 continues to add 200 pounds a day to its weight until at 

 an age of eleven years it ceases to grow. 



Brandt states that blue whales reach a maximum length 

 of 100 feet and a weight of 150 metric tons, or 330,693 

 pounds. They reach their maturity for reproduction at the 

 age of two to three years and the period of gestation is 3 1 5 

 days. 



So completely adapted is the whale to life in the sea that 

 he has no need for emergency power to overcome gravity 

 or to pursue food. The great whales take their nourishment 

 in the form of plankton, for they swim, as it were, in a bowl of 

 soup. The whale is balanced in the water. The whale needs 

 no crisis energy, as does the elephant, to pull himself out of 

 the mud and up a slippery bank; the whale is in command of 

 his security. The only enemies of the whale family are a 

 fellow whale and man. The killer whale benefits the whale 

 family by killing the least fit; just as the lion benefits the 

 antelope by killing the least fit. Man kills the most fit 

 among his fellow men. 



In the large brain, the large heart, the large blood volume, 

 the large thyroid gland, and smaller adrenal glands we see 

 the typical formula of the arctic. 



The whale by his size, by his giving birth to but one 

 young at a time, by the certainty of his food supply, by his 

 geological record, and by his most nearly perfect adaptation 

 is the most masterful animal, save man. 



Having found a neuroendocrine formula characteristic 

 of animals in the arctic, a formula expressed most strik- 

 ingly in the whale family, the question arose: Is the unique 

 size of the brain, the heart and blood volume, and the 

 thyroid gland in the whale family an adaptation to cold, 

 to muscular activity, or to both? 



That the unique size of these organs is not an adaptation 

 to muscular activity is seen in the comparison between the 

 racing stallion Equipoise and the white whale. 



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