Marine Mammals: Whales, Dolphins, Orcas, Seals and Walruses

Marine mammals breathe air, are warm-blooded and feed their young with milk, but they spend most or all of their lives in the ocean. This puzzle covers the main groups: whales, dolphins and orcas; seals and walruses; and the manatee, a gentle plant-eater of warm coastal waters. Blubber, a thick layer of fat, keeps them warm in cold water.

Echolocation, the longest word at 12 letters, is how dolphins and orcas find food in the dark: they send out clicks and listen to the echoes. Migration recalls the whales that travel thousands of kilometers between feeding and breeding grounds.

Marine Mammals Vocabulary: 12 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down, and diagonally; 5 of the 12 read backwards. The longest word is Echolocation, with 12 letters.

Aquatic: Living in or near water.
Blubber: A thick layer of fat under the skin of whales, seals and walruses that keeps them warm in cold water.
Dolphin: A small, very intelligent toothed whale that lives in groups and finds food by echolocation.
Echolocation: Finding objects by sending out sounds and listening to the echoes, as dolphins and bats do.
Manatee: A large, slow plant-eating mammal of warm coasts and rivers, sometimes called a sea cow.
Marine: Of the sea.
Migration: A long seasonal journey. Gray whales travel up to about 20,000 km every year between Arctic feeding grounds and Mexican lagoons.
Ocean: The huge body of salt water that covers about 71% of the Earth's surface.
Orca: The killer whale, actually the largest member of the dolphin family, which hunts in family groups.
Seal: A sea mammal with flippers and a sleek body that hunts fish and rests on rocks or ice.
Walrus: A large Arctic sea mammal with long tusks and whiskers, which it uses to find clams on the sea floor.
Whale: A huge sea mammal that breathes air through a blowhole. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived.

How to Solve the Marine Mammals Word Search

"Echolocation" reads normally across, the longest word at 12 letters. "Blubber" has a double B and runs straight down, and "aquatic" has the only Q and runs upward. "Manatee" and "marine" both start with MA: manatee runs down, marine runs up.

Marine Mammal Lesson Ideas

Ask students to explain why a whale is a mammal and not a fish.
Play an echolocation game: a blindfolded student finds the others by calling out and listening to their answers.
Research one marine mammal's migration and trace it on a world map.