A blue whale gives birth to a calf every 2-3 years, but that’s not all. A calf is about 5000 pounds at birth. That is a heavy baby! It drinks 100 pounds of milk each day to add to the 5000 pounds it already is. Over all, in a day it increases in about 200 pounds. The weight of a calf makes sense because a calf is 25 feet long! A baby swims in warm water because it hasn’t built up enough blubber yet. Before a calf's birth, a mother builds up extra blubber, so it won’t have to leave it’s calf. Also the mother blue whale’s gestation takes about 1 year. After the calf is born, the mother lives on the extra energy stored in the blubber. A mother stays with it’s calf for about 6 months. That would be a long time to live on extra energy! After that 6 months a calf will try to look for its own krill. A calf is considered mature by the time it’s 10. That is how a mother blue whale takes care of its calf.
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