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Humpback whales are great travelers, generally migrating from equatorial waters to Arctic or Antarctic waters every year. The humpbacks spend their summers in cooler waters that are their feeding grounds, and then typically migrate thousands of miles to winter in more tropical zones, where they breed and give birth.
Most humpbacks live in recognized "communities," wintering and summering in the same places every year. As you can see from the illustration, these communities are spread across the globe. Much of humpback migration remains mysterious. But scientists have witnessed a group of Northern Hemisphere humpbacks traveling from the West Indies to the ice floes north of Norway. That 4,000-mile, one-way trip is the longest documented migration of any mammal. Scientists are uncertain where the Madagascar humpbacks will go when they leave the coast in several weeks. Based on the behavior of other Southern Hemisphere humpbacks, the scientists speculate that most of these whales will begin the long swim to Antarctic waters, where they will gorge themselves on krill and small sea animals before returning to Madagascar next July or August. |
Source: Jacques Cousteau -- Whales, 1988, Henry N. Abrams, Inc., New York
| Humpbacks have been known to travel 4,000 miles each way in their annual trip to and from winter breeding grounds to summer feeding grounds. It's the longest documented migration of any mammal. |
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