According to scientists, the humpback whale makes one of the longest migrations ever recorded

A male humpback whale made one of the species’ longest and most unusual migrations, an anomaly scientists say could be linked to climate change.

The whale was first spotted in northwestern Colombian waters in July 2013, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal. Royal Society Open Science about the creature’s movements and how to potentially explain them. The authors said the same whale was seen again four years later, at another point on the Colombian coast about 50 miles away from the site of the first sighting.

A third unlikely encounter with the humpback came in August 2022, when it was seen in East Africa in a channel between Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania. The whale would have had to cross several oceans and travel more than 8,000 miles from the Colombian Pacific to get there, and experts believe it was trying to find a mate or food. The whale’s long journey set a record for the longest known migration between breeding grounds.

Sightings were tracked through photographs submitted by citizen scientists to happywhale.com, where marine enthusiasts, researchers and other professionals chart the locations and movements of whales around the world.

Although humpbacks are among several known species of whales migrate extraordinarily long distances each year to seek food sources in colder waters and breed in tropical seas, the study authors described the humpback whale’s behavior as “atypical.” This whale’s cruise eclipsed even the longest transits reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which notes in a description of humpback whales shared on its site that some populations are known to migrate up to 5,000 miles in one single year

The study said the long-distance movement was peculiar “and raises the question of what its drivers are, which could include but not necessarily be limited to mating strategies.”

The whale’s penchant for exploring unexpected and distant habitat may also have been rooted in environmental changes caused by climate change, the authors said. Things like higher sea surface temperatures are affecting marine life around the world and could similarly affect krill distributions in certain areas, which in turn could affect feeding grounds for humpbacks like the traveler long distance

Their study noted that more research is needed to reach any conclusions about the whale’s migration pattern.

“On the other hand, population growth can also be a driver of these breeding changes, when animals may need to explore new breeding and/or feeding areas due to competition from larger, more established males in both areas,” the authors wrote. “The exact cause or drivers of these breeding habitat shifts can only be speculated upon due to the current limited availability of data on humpback whale behavioral ecology.”

CBS News reached out to one of the study’s authors for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.