UAMN Virtual Junior Curators: Marine Mammals Guess Who? Trivia Play a game to explore fun facts about Alaska marine mammals! Materials Needed: Printable trivia cards and species cards, scissors, bag or other small container, pencil. Prepare the Cards: Cut out the trivia cards along the dotted lines (try not to peek at the answers!). Place the trivia cards in a bag or other small container. Cut out the species cards and give one to each player. How to Play: Take turns picking trivia questions from the bag and ask the other players the “Guess who?” question. For each correct answer, mark the corresponding animal on your species card. Challenge each other to mark the most species! Can you “collect” all fourteen animals? Note: Some questions have more than one correct answer. You can choose whether to mark one or all of them on your species card. Marine Mammals in Alaska The waters of Alaska are home to polar bears, sea otters, walruses, and many species of whales and seals. Some stay year-round, while others migrate north in the summer to breed. Arctic waters provide an ideal habitat for marine mammals, as they are rich in food and are a gateway to the Arctic Ocean. These waters have some of the richest marine mammal species diversity in the world (darkest areas on the map). Discover more about Arctic marine mammals: Species richness for 11 marine mammals. www.fisheries.noaa.gov/find-species Image: State of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Report. UAMN Virtual Junior Curators: Marine Mammals Guess Who? Trivia: Species Cards Cut along the dotted lines. Note: Animals are not to scale. S ea Otter K iller Whale Sea Otter Killer Whale Po lar Bear Wa lrus Polar Bear Walrus Pacific Harbor Pacific Harbor White-sided Porpoise White-sided Porpoise Dolphin Dolphin Rin ged Rib bon Ringed Ribbon Seal Seal Seal Seal Bowhead Narwhal Bowhead Narwhal Whale Whale Beluga Humpback Beluga Humpback Whale Whale Whale Whale Stel ler’s Blue Steller’s Blue Sea Cow Whale Sea Cow Whale Sea Otter Killer Whale Sea Otter Killer Whale Polar Bear Walrus Polar Bear Walrus Pacific Harbor Pacific Harbor White-sided Porpoise White-sided Porpoise Dolphin Dolphin Ringed Ribbon Ringed Ribbon Seal Seal Seal Seal Bowhead Narwhal Bowhead Narwhal Whale Whale Beluga Humpback Beluga Humpback Whale Whale Whale Whale Steller’s Blue Steller’s Blue Sea Cow Whale Sea Cow Whale UAMN Virtual Junior Curators: Marine Mammals Guess Who? Trivia Cards I am the largest animal in the I am very shy around people and I belong to the weasel family. world. boats, and often travel alone. A n s w e r: b l u e w h a l e A n s w e r: s ea o t t e r A n s w e r: h ar b o r p o rp o i s e When I surface for air, I don’t make My dark body has large stripes on I run on the ice with my front a splash. it. flippers, swishing my hindquarters back and forth. A n s w e r: h ar b o r p o rp o i s e A n s w e r: ri b b o n s ea l A n s w e r: ri b b o n s ea l I have the densest fur of any animal My bones turn pink when I eat I almost went extinct because of (up to one million hairs per square purple sea urchins! the fur trade. In 1912, there were inch!). less than 300 of us left in the wild. A n s w e r: s ea o t t e r A n s w e r: s ea o t t e r A n s w e r: s ea o t t e r I can eat 100 pounds of blubber in I am the keeper of the kelp forest. I am the only marine mammal one sitting! without blubber. A n s w e r: p o l ar b ear A n s w e r: s ea o t t e r A n s w e r: s ea o t t e r When I was born, I weighed just In the summer, I become stranded My fur looks white but it is one pound. But I can grow to be on land if sea ice is too far from the transparent. Underneath, my skin is 2000 pounds! coast. black. A n s w e r: p o l ar b ear A n s w e r: p o l ar b ear A n s w e r: p o l ar b ear The skin around my neck is almost My friends and I make a blubber Climate change is a major threat to 4 inches thick to protect me from wall to protect ourselves against my species because I depend on injuries. polar bears. sea ice to eat seals. A n s w e r: p o l ar b ear A n s w e r: w al ru s A n s w e r: w al ru s I love to cuddle! In captivity, calves I can suck out a clam from its shell In Latin, my name is “Odobenus”, cuddle with animal caretakers to at a speed of 120 mph, and eat which means “tooth walker”. survive. around 6000 clams each day! A n s w e r: w al ru s A n s w e r: w al ru s A n s w e r: w al ru s My bow-shaped head helps me I can live over 200 years! I swim with my mouth open to feed break through sea ice. on zooplankton. w h a l e A n s w e r: b o w h ea d w h a l e, h u mp b a ck w h al e , b l u e A n s w e r: b o w h ea d w h a l e A n s w e r: b o w h ea d w h a l e My coat has ring-shaped markings. My blubber is the thickest of any I am known for my intense tail and animal, up to 19 inches thick! flipper flapping, and leaping out of the water during mating season. A n s w e r: b o w h ea d w h a l e A n s w e r: ri n g e d s ea l A n s w e r: b o w h ea d w h a l e UAMN Virtual Junior Curators: Marine Mammals I can cut out a breathing hole I dig out lairs under the sea ice to I cut breathing holes through the through ice 6 feet thick! protect my pups from polar bears. ice with the claws on my front flippers. A n s w e r: ri n g e d s ea l A n s w e r: ri n g e d s ea l A n s w e r: ri n g e d s ea l I spend long amounts of time I raise my young on thin ice to To feed, I suck fish into my mouth scanning the horizon for predators. protect them from predators. like a vacuum! A n s w e r: ri b b o n s ea l A n s w e r: b el u g a an d n a r w h al A n s w e r: ri b b o n s ea l I am the ocean’s top predator. I was hunted for meat by Arctic I went extinct in the 1700s. My expeditions in the 1700s. One of us closest relatives are the dugong could feed a crew for 30 days. and the manatee. A n s w e r: k i l l er w h a l e A n s w e r: St el l er ’ s s ea c o w A n s w e r: St el l er ’s s ea c o w I hunt in a pack, just like a wolf. I live in all of the world’s oceans I am the largest member of the and eat many different kinds of dolphin family. prey. A n s w e r: k i l l er w h a l e A n s w e r: k i l l er w h a l e A n s w e r: k i l l er w h a l e I am easily recognized underwater I can change the shape of my I can swallow a sea lion whole! because of my unusual white color. bulbous head by blowing air through my sinuses! A n s w e r: b el u g a w h al e A n s w e r: k i l l er w h a l e A n s w e r: b el u g a w h a l e I am one of the best divers in the My skin contains as much vitamin C Males of my species have a long world, diving up to 1500 meters as an orange! spiral shaped tooth. deep (almost 5000ft). A n s w e r: n ar w h al A n s w e r: n ar w h al A n s w e r: n ar w h al Together with others in my pod, we My cone shaped teeth help me I can spin in the air and do make bubble nets to feed.