AnimalsThe blue whale is the largest animal known to have lived, larger than any dinosaur. It feeds on tiny shrimp-like krill, straining them from the water through plates of baleen in its mouth. Its low calls travel great distances under water.
Quick facts
- Scientific name
- Balaenoptera musculus
- Group
- Mammals
- Diet
- Carnivore (eats other animals)
- Lives in
- All oceans
- Habitat
- Open sea
- A young one is called
- calf
- A group is called
- pod
- Conservation status
- Endangered
How it is classified
Scientists sort living things into groups within groups. Reading down, each step is a smaller group, ending with the species itself.
- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata
- Class Mammalia
- Order Cetacea
- Family Balaenopteridae
- Genus Balaenoptera
- Species Balaenoptera musculus
Other members of the family Balaenopteridae on this site: humpback whale.
More distant relatives in the order Cetacea: common bottlenose dolphin, Ganges river dolphin, orca.
Classification follows the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Other reference works arrange some groups differently. How classification works.
Is it in danger?
The blue whale is listed as Endangered. The species faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
This is the IUCN Red List category as recorded in Wikidata on 11 November 2026. The IUCN Red List itself is the authority and may carry a newer assessment. What the categories mean.