Humpback Whale Facts:
Adult males measure 40-48 feet
Adult females measure 45-50 feet
They weigh 25 to 40 tons
Humpback whales feed on krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, and various kinds of small fish.
Each whale eats up to 1 and 1/2 tons of food a day.
As a baleen whale, it has a series of overlapping plates hanging from each side of the upper jaw, where teeth might otherwise be located. These plates consist of fine hairs on the ends inside the mouth near the tongue. During feeding, large volumes of water and food can be taken into the mouth because the pleated grooves in the throat expand. As the mouth closes water is expelled through the baleen plates, which trap the food on the inside near the tongue to be swallowed.
Humpback whales reach sexual maturity at 6-10 years of age or when males reach the length of 35 feet and females reach 40 feet. Each female typically bears a calf every 2-3 years and the gestation period is 12 months. A humpback whale calf is between 10-15 feet long at birth, and weighs up to 1 ton. It nurses frequently on the mother's rich milk. The calf is weaned to solid food when it is about a year old.
Found in all the world's oceans, most populations of humpback whales follow a regular migration route, summering in temperate and polar waters for feeding, and wintering in tropical waters for mating and calving.
Glossary
Breaching: They can throw themselves completely out of the water, land on their backs or sides and swim on their backs with both flippers in the air.
Tail lobbing: raising their huge flukes out of the water and then slapping it on the surface.
Flipper slapping: Using their flippers to slap the water.
Singing Scientists have discovered that humpback whales sing long, complex "songs". A typical song lasts from 10-20 minutes, is repeated continuously for hours at a time, and changes gradually from year to year. Singing whales are males.
Adult males measure 40-48 feet
Adult females measure 45-50 feet
They weigh 25 to 40 tons
Humpback whales feed on krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, and various kinds of small fish.
Each whale eats up to 1 and 1/2 tons of food a day.
As a baleen whale, it has a series of overlapping plates hanging from each side of the upper jaw, where teeth might otherwise be located. These plates consist of fine hairs on the ends inside the mouth near the tongue. During feeding, large volumes of water and food can be taken into the mouth because the pleated grooves in the throat expand. As the mouth closes water is expelled through the baleen plates, which trap the food on the inside near the tongue to be swallowed.
Humpback whales reach sexual maturity at 6-10 years of age or when males reach the length of 35 feet and females reach 40 feet. Each female typically bears a calf every 2-3 years and the gestation period is 12 months. A humpback whale calf is between 10-15 feet long at birth, and weighs up to 1 ton. It nurses frequently on the mother's rich milk. The calf is weaned to solid food when it is about a year old.
Found in all the world's oceans, most populations of humpback whales follow a regular migration route, summering in temperate and polar waters for feeding, and wintering in tropical waters for mating and calving.
Glossary
Breaching: They can throw themselves completely out of the water, land on their backs or sides and swim on their backs with both flippers in the air.
Tail lobbing: raising their huge flukes out of the water and then slapping it on the surface.
Flipper slapping: Using their flippers to slap the water.
Singing Scientists have discovered that humpback whales sing long, complex "songs". A typical song lasts from 10-20 minutes, is repeated continuously for hours at a time, and changes gradually from year to year. Singing whales are males.