Stop 4 Rainbow Beach - Fraser

🐳

NAME
• comes from the distinctive hump in front of their small dorsal fin

LUNCH
• often feed in large groups
• humpbacks are baleen whales, which means they filter their food through baleen plates
• they strain krill, anchovies, cod, sardines, mackerel, capelin, and other schooling fish from the waters
• some humpbacks have been observed creating "bubble nets" to catch their prey
• the whales dive deep then swim up in a spiral pattern, while releasing a steady stream of bubbles from their blow holes
• as the bubbles rise they form a "net" that surrounds the whales' prey
• the whales swim up through the centre of the bubble net and feed on the prey trapped inside

COLOUR
• mainly black or grey with white undersides to their flukes, flippers and bellies

SIZE
• 15m long

NOTICEABLE CHARACTERISTICS
• their long flippers & famous foe their singing ability
• Humpback whales are extremely active, often slapping their flippers and flukes on the surface of the sea
• they also breach more than any other baleen whales
• male humpbacks produce a long series of calls that are normally heard during the winter breeding season, although songs have been recorded in the summer
• the whales may repeat the same song for several hours

HUMPBACK SONGS
• appear to be shared by all singing members in the same area of the ocean
• as the song changes, all members sing the new song
• the same song is sung in spite of the great distance between groups in the population (up to 5000km)
• this sharing of songs may occur when groups intermingle during migration or in shared summer feeding grounds

🎶 "Researchers are not certain why humpback whales sing. They have hypothesised that the songs attract females or are used as territorial markers" 🎶

HABITAT & ECOLOGY
• humpback whales make extensive seasonal migrations between high latitude summer feeding grounds and low latitude wintering grounds
• winters are spent mating and calving in warm sub-tropical waters, with an annual migration back to colder waters to feed

BREEDING
• humpback whales have complicated courtship behaviours
• often, many males will surround a single female hitting each other in a competition to get close to her
• females become pregnant about every two to four years, and are pregnant with each calf for about 11 to 12 months
• the calves can grow 0.5 metres per month while nursing on their mother"s rich milk
• females nurse their newborn calves in warm, shallow water
• because of an absence of teeth (which can be used to estimate age in other mammals), it is difficult to tell the age of a humpback whale but they are believed to live to 80

🐳 pictures & text from googleRead more