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Humans can be swallowed by whales? Let‘s know can they?

14 different species of Baleen whales, like grey, humpback, and blue whales, which includes dolphins, sperm whales, beaked whales, and killer whales, let know more!

Deeksha Upadhyay 18 February 2025 11:40

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23-Year-Old Kayaker Swallows and Spits Out Kayaker in Strait of Magellan (Video) While kayaking in the Strait of Magellan on February 8, 23-year-old Adrián Simancas was sucked into a humpback whale’s mouth for a brief moment before being spit out. The video was captured by his father, who was paddling nearby. At one point, Simancas can be seen on the water and then suddenly disappears inside the whale’s mouth—only to reappear seconds later. He was not harmed in this struggle.

Humpbacks a specie of whales, such as grey and blue whales, they are called baleen whales as instead of teeth they possess plates of keratin, the same protein we have in our hair and nail which allows them to filter tiny animals like plankton, krill and small fish from the water. They take huge gulps, then push the water back out. Toothed whales have teeth. Toothed whales are over 70 species, like dolphins, sperm whales, beaked whales and killer whales. “These whales have teeth and actively hunt larger prey such as fish, squid and sometimes even seals, ” wrote Anas Remili on her website Whale Scientists. “Interesting fact: toothed whales do not chew with their teeth, they usually grab their prey with their teeth and swallow it whole. ”Humans cannot be swallowed by toothed or baleen whales. Despite having a large mouth, humpbacks have a much smaller throat, about the size of a human fist. Compared to baleen whales, toothed whales have a larger oesophagus. However, they can't swallow a human being whole either.

This is not true for sperm whales. They are the only whales in the world with throats big enough to ingest a person. However, according to a National Geographic report, it is "a billion to one thing" for a sperm whale to swallow a human, partly due to the rarity of encounters.

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