really confused as to how some cetaceans drink milk from their mothers without flexible lips
ok but now im stuck on imagining whale milk as like…yogurt…and it comes out like a soft serve machine
thank you! I have absolutely no use of this horrifying information other than I will now be haunted by thoughts of whales forcefully shooting toothpaste thick milk into their baby’s mouth like a go-gurt
Give nightmares a little more credit than that, you know it’s going to be yourmouth
Baby cetaceans also make a little tube with their tongue.
You can sort of see the shape in this picture of a bottlefed calf.
The tongue-tube fact is a super important addition!! For many species it is a very necessary part of nursing, because while the milk may be rather viscous, it still goes everywhere if it’s just shot out into the ocean. And this is why cetacean calves have frilly tongues! They use these little tongue flaps to better make a seal around mom’s nipple. The frills decrease substantially with age, though may not always completely disappear. These are tongue flaps of a bottlenose dolphin, who was 4 at the time but still drinking with mom cus she’s spoilt.
For sperm whales the tongue-tube method isn’t very viable because.. well.. have you seen a sperm whale? Instead they just insert their lower jaw into the mammary slit (ouch) and mom squirts milk into their mouth. It’s hard to see in available footage, but I think the babies still make a little tongue-straw to quite effectively suck up the milk. I wonder how much seawater they consumer while doing this?
