Colored pencil and water soluble graphite Bowhead whales eat mostly zooplankton, especially tiny copepods that they strain from the water, up to 10,000 in one mouthful! I was playing around with scale (in reality copepods are barely visible to the naked eye and whales of course are enormous), ways to draw copepods, and the idea of life under the ice. Different elements of this little sketch might eventually become their own pieces, but this was just a fun way to get down some ideas. The pile of tiny copepods at the bottom of the paper is in reference to the fact that some copepods essentially hibernate in big clusters in very deep water over the winter and live off oil reserves in their bodies. I was lucky enough to get to look at some live copepods under a microscope the other day thanks to Dr. Carin Ashjian, so now I’m experimenting with different ways of portraying them. 6 Responses Michael Mangalo May 26, 2014 Wow! I think it’s really cool how with just a piece of paper, a coloured pencil, and graphite, you can show the similarities between two creatures that are so drastically different in size! What exactly is a copepod and why did you choose to portray these creatures next to this enormous bowhead whale? Reply Chelsea Clarke May 28, 2014 Thanks for the compliment! A copepod is a type of zooplankton, a tiny sea creature sort of like a very miniature shrimp. I drew it with the bowhead whale because believe it or not tiny copepods are the main source of food for these whales! They strain thousands of them out of the water with their baleen. Reply Michael Mangalo May 28, 2014 Cool! That’s very interesting that they look so alike. So if they eat zooplankton, are zooplankton higher or lower in the food chain than phytoplankton? Do any whales eat phytoplankton? Coastal Alaskan June 3, 2014 Chelsea – FYI – bowheads do not have callosities – only their cousin the right whale does. You might want to consider that in future drawings. Hope that helps. Nice artwork. Reply Chelsea Clarke June 10, 2014 You’re right, thanks for pointing out my mistake. I was working from a photo labeled bowhead whale, but when I did a little more research I saw that you were right, so it must have been a mislabeled photo. Clearly I didn’t do enough research the first time around! Reply Chelsea Clarke June 10, 2014 And Michael, to answer your question, zooplankton are higher on the food chain than phytoplankton. Zooplankton are the animal plankton and they eat the phytoplankton, which are the plant plankton that get their food through photosynthesis. Some bigger zooplankton also eat other types of smaller zooplankton (which eat phytoplankton). I’m not aware of any whales eating phytoplankton as a major food source but they probably swallow some along with their other food. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Name* Email* Website Comment Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.
Michael Mangalo May 26, 2014 Wow! I think it’s really cool how with just a piece of paper, a coloured pencil, and graphite, you can show the similarities between two creatures that are so drastically different in size! What exactly is a copepod and why did you choose to portray these creatures next to this enormous bowhead whale? Reply
Chelsea Clarke May 28, 2014 Thanks for the compliment! A copepod is a type of zooplankton, a tiny sea creature sort of like a very miniature shrimp. I drew it with the bowhead whale because believe it or not tiny copepods are the main source of food for these whales! They strain thousands of them out of the water with their baleen. Reply
Michael Mangalo May 28, 2014 Cool! That’s very interesting that they look so alike. So if they eat zooplankton, are zooplankton higher or lower in the food chain than phytoplankton? Do any whales eat phytoplankton?
Coastal Alaskan June 3, 2014 Chelsea – FYI – bowheads do not have callosities – only their cousin the right whale does. You might want to consider that in future drawings. Hope that helps. Nice artwork. Reply
Chelsea Clarke June 10, 2014 You’re right, thanks for pointing out my mistake. I was working from a photo labeled bowhead whale, but when I did a little more research I saw that you were right, so it must have been a mislabeled photo. Clearly I didn’t do enough research the first time around! Reply
Chelsea Clarke June 10, 2014 And Michael, to answer your question, zooplankton are higher on the food chain than phytoplankton. Zooplankton are the animal plankton and they eat the phytoplankton, which are the plant plankton that get their food through photosynthesis. Some bigger zooplankton also eat other types of smaller zooplankton (which eat phytoplankton). I’m not aware of any whales eating phytoplankton as a major food source but they probably swallow some along with their other food. Reply
