Why Don't Blue Whales Eat Fish?

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The most massive land animals in the world all eat little stuff: grass and leaves. And almost all of the most massive aquatic animals also eat something itty bitty: tiny crustaceans called krill. Why do such big things eat such small things? LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Jarman-Bell Principle: As herbivore species get bigger in size, they tend to eat less nutritious food, but more of it, thanks to increased gut efficiency. - Kleiber’s Law: As an animal gets bigger, it needs less energy per unit mass. (Specifically, an animal's basal metabolic rate scales to the 3/4 power of the animal's mass.) - Phytoplankton: A diverse group of small organisms that float on water and photosynthesize. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth - Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books - Sign up to our newsletter: http://news.minuteearth.com - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Lizah van der Aart | Storyboard Artist Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Henry Reich • Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Cooke, R., Gearty, W., Chapman, A.S.A. et al. Anthropogenic disruptions to longstanding patterns of trophic-size structure in vertebrates. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 684–692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01726-x Belovsky, G.E. Optimal foraging and community structure: the allometry of herbivore food selection and competition. Evol Ecol 11, 641–672 (1997). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018430201230 Biomes Group, Biology 1B, UC Berkeley. The grassland biome. University of California Museum of Paleontology (1996, reformatted 2007). https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/grasslands.php Greenfieldboyce, N. The biggest whales can eat the equivalent of 80,000 Big Macs in one day. NPR (2021, November 3). https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/1051650199/the-biggest-whales-can-eat-the-equivalent-of-80-000-big-macs-in-one-day Stokstad, E. Rootin', poopin' African elephants help keep soil fertile. Science (2022, October 26). https://www.science.org/content/article/rootin-poopin-african-elephants-help-keep-soil-fertile Thompson, J. How Antarctic krill coordinate the biggest swarms in the world. Sci Am (2022, July 1). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-antarctic-krill-coordinate-the-biggest-swarms-in-the-world/