Humpback Whale:
In an astonishing feat, a male humpback whale has swum over 13,046 kilometres from South America to Africa, setting a new record for the longest whale migration ever documented.
- Humpback Whale gets its common name from the distinctive hump on its back.
- Its long pectoral fins inspired its scientific name, Megaptera, which means “big-winged”.
- Humpback females are larger than males.
- They are mainly black or greywith white undersides to their flukes, flippers and bellies.
- They also have large knobs on the head, jaws, and body, each knob being associated with one or two hairs.
- These whales live in all oceans around the world. They travel great distances every year and have one of the longest migrations of any mammal on the planet.
- They undertake long migrations between polar feeding grounds in summer and tropical or subtropical breeding grounds in winter.
- Humpbacks use a unique method of feeding called bubble netting, in which bubbles are exhaled as the whale swims in a spiral below a patch of water dense with food.
- Conservation status
- IUCN: Least concern
- CITES: Appendix I
