In the Bible it is told that a whale swallowed Jonah. Do whales eat humans?
2007-02-07 19:57:26 · 10 answers · asked by hopeful s 1 in Environment
Possibly a whale could unintentionally get a human caught in his mouth and the person would be taken into its stomach. Whales do not ordinarily prey on humans. Most whales eat plankton, tiny, microscopic organisms by the millions they filter out with large baleen plates. Other whales eat squid. Dolphins are cetaceans and considered by many biologists to be just small toothed whales. The largest dolphin, the killer whale, will eat seals sea lions, and other whales such as gray whales and right whales and so on, but they do not eat humans intentionally as a perceived source of food.
2007-02-08 16:21:56 · answer #1 · answered by Professor Armitage 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The translations of the Bible that I have read say that it was a large fish that swallowed Jonah. Whales are not fish however this distinction was not that well understood in ancient times. The really large whales that might be able to swallow a person whole have really small throats which would make that difficult. The whales that do eat large prey would probably not be able to swallow a man whole. Large fish such as the great white shark do attack humans but they don't swallow their prey whole; they take large bites which doesn't work for the Jonah story. Perhaps God created a special fish for the occasion since nothing that swims in the sea today could swallow a man whole and keep him alive for several days inside.
2007-02-07 21:00:22 · answer #2 · answered by rethinker 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
wouldn't it be great if whales ate rush limbaugh?
more than likely the whale that swallowed jonah was a parable and not to be taken literally. the message is more important than the concept of jonah physically living in a whale. don't miss the forest because of a spot on a tree.
2007-02-07 20:31:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, a few whales will kill a human in extremely rare circumstance, but will not eat one. A killer whale is not a whale, it's a dolphin, but I'm not sure if it would eat a human. I don't see why not, they will eat warm blooded birds and mammals such as seals.
2007-02-07 20:12:18 · answer #4 · answered by George Bailey 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Killer Whales (not true whales) & Sperm Whales would as a course of normal predation be quite content with a human morsel.
2007-02-07 20:13:33 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No Orcas can eat people ,they eat dolphins and sea lions
the biggest whale eats the smallest organisms in the sea ,namely plankton
Jonah was yet another fantasy from the bible
2007-02-08 15:29:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
the only dangerous man-eating ones are the killer-whale or orca.most other whales feed on plankton,shrimp and krill.
2007-02-07 20:06:56 · answer #7 · answered by hellion_7 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A "Killer" Whale, is NOT a Whale ?
I better check my "Nomenclature" !
2007-02-07 22:16:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i dont think they were meaning that type of swallow
2007-02-07 20:04:07 · answer #9 · answered by da rinse mode 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no...they eat krill
2007-02-07 21:00:57 · answer #10 · answered by Olive 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋