blue whale vs Common seabird tick

Balaenoptera musculus compared with Ixodes uriae

Key Differences

• blue whale is Vulnerable while Common seabird tick is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	blue whale	Common seabird tick
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class	Mammalia (Mammals)	Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order	Cetacea (Whales & Dolphins)	Ixodida (Ixodida)
Family	Balaenopteridae (Rorquals)	Ixodidae
Genus	Balaenoptera (Rorquals)	Ixodes
Species	Balaenoptera musculus	Ixodes uriae

Evolutionary Relationship

blue whale and Common seabird tick share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (Animals)

Conservation Status

blue whale

VU — Vulnerable

Population: ~15.0K

Trend: Increasing ↑

Common seabird tick

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	blue whale	Common seabird tick
Diet	Carnivore	—
Average Lifespan	90 years	—
Average Length	30.0 m	—
Average Weight	150.0 t	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

blue whale

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, among 11 distinct biome types. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (4 countries), and South America (Colombia, Ecuador). Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Common seabird tick

Habitat

Typically found in terrestrial habitats from forests to deserts.

Range

Distributed across Norway and Sweden.

blue whale

The largest animal ever known to have lived on Earth, blue whales can reach 33 meters and 200 tonnes — their hearts alone weigh as much as a small car. Found in all oceans, they migrate between polar feeding grounds and tropical breeding areas. Filter feeders consuming up to 4 tonnes of krill daily. Endangered, with global populations estimated at 10,000–25,000 after near-extinction from 20th-century whaling.

Common seabird tick

<em>Ixodes uriae</em>, the common seabird tick, is a hard tick in the family Ixodidae, order Ixodida, distributed across subarctic and subantarctic regions with records from Norway and Sweden. This species is an obligate ectoparasite that specializes in feeding on colonial seabirds, including auks, penguins, and petrels, making it one of the few tick species with a genuinely circumpolar distribution tied to its avian hosts. <em>Ixodes uriae</em> typically infests birds in their nesting colonies, where dense aggregations and repeated site fidelity by hosts facilitate transmission. Beyond its direct parasitic impact, this tick serves as a vector for various pathogens, including Borrelia spirochetes and tick-borne encephalitis-related viruses, making it of scientific interest for disease ecology in seabird populations. The species has not been formally evaluated by the IUCN, and its conservation status remains Not Evaluated. Biological traits for this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature, including comprehensive data on average lifespan under natural conditions, body dimensions across life stages, weight, and the full range of its host and pathogen associations.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

🇳🇴 Norway 🇸🇪 Sweden