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In 2013, photographers captured a humpback whale off the coast of Colombia. Nine years later, the same whale was photographed in a stunningly remote location.
An international team of researchers has discovered one of the longest individual humpback whale migrations ever documented, a remarkable discovery detailed on December 11 study published in a journal Royal Society Open Scienceoffers insight into the complex behavior of species and the environmental factors that can drive such long-distance journeys.
Researchers, including scientists from the Macuáticos Colombia Foundation, discovered the humpback whale as an adult male. It was first photographed off the coast of Colombia on July 10, 2013. Almost a decade later, a researcher photographed the same whale between Tanzania and Zanzibar channel on August 22, 2022. The two scenes were at a distance of 8106.4 miles apart (13,046 kilometers), which likely represents the longest recorded distance ever traveled by a humpback whale, said Ekaterina Kalashnikova of the Tanzanian Cetacean Project, who co-authored the study. BBC:.
The great circle distance is the shortest distance between the two points on the ball, but “the exact migration path of this individual is unknown,” the researchers wrote in the study. In fact, it is unlikely that the raven swam the humpback whale in flight, meaning it was probably very greater distance traveled.
Although humpback whales make the longest migration of any animal in the world, this whale’s journey is still surprising. Humpback whales tend to follow the same longitudinal (north-south) migration patterns, usually visiting the same cold feeding grounds and warm breeding grounds, according to the study.
This point, however, exchanged breeding sites and: It crossed three oceans in latitude (east-west) to do so, making it the first recorded humpback whale to switch breeding grounds from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean 6125 miles driven (9,800 kilometers) from the coast of Brazil to Madagascar.
“The long-distance movement presented here appears to be atypical and raises the question of what its drivers may be, but not necessarily limited to mating strategies,” they wrote. In other words, the whale could have embarked on a transoceanic journey for sex.
“When he showed up, was it like, ‘Oooh, a sexy foreigner with a cool accent?'” joked Ted Cheeseman of Southern Cross University, who co-authored the study, as quoted by The Keeper.
“Other reasons behind the exploration of this unusual new environment may be global climate change and altered environmental conditions and events,” the researchers wrote, adding that fluctuations in the distribution of krill in the Southern Ocean may be involved. that humpback whale population growth may increase competition for mates and resources, causing individuals to search for food and breeding grounds further from their normal path.
The researchers acknowledged that “the exact reason or motivations for these breeding habitat shifts can only be speculated upon due to the current limited availability of data on humpback whale behavioral ecology.” However, they added that the record migration highlights the species’ behavioral flexibility, which may help humpbacks. adapt to environmental changes or may reflect evolutionary responses to such pressures.
Scientists have discovered the humpback whale’s record-breaking journey thanks to photos uploaded to the platform Happy pointA website co-founded by Cheeseman where whale watchers can upload pictures of their whale sightings, the platform uses automated image recognition software to identify whales in pictures based on the unique patterns of their spots (their tails).
The study sheds light on the surprising behavior of a complex marine animal and may ultimately reveal insights into both humpback whales and their marine ecosystem.
