This humpback whale breaks a migration record with an amazing journey of 8,000 miles

In 2013, photographers recorded a humpback whale off the coast of Colombia. Nine years later, the same whale was photographed in a shockingly remote location.

An international team of researchers has identified one of the longest individual humpback whale migrations ever documented. This remarkable result, detailed on December 11th He studies Published in the magazine Royal Society Open ScienceIt provides insight into the complex behavior of species and the environmental factors that may lead to such long journeys.

Researchers, including scientists from Colombia’s Macuáticos Foundation, identified 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 in the Zanzibar Channel between Tanzania and Zanzibar on August 22, 2022. Both sightings were within a large circle. to 8106.4 miles Ekaterina Kalashnikova of the Cetacean Program in Tanzania, who co-wrote the study, told BBC.

The distance of a great circle is the shortest distance between two points on a sphere, but “the exact migration route of this individual is unknown,” the researchers wrote in the study. In fact, it is unlikely that the humpback whale was swimming as the crow flies, which means it may have traveled a much greater distance.

While humpback whales make some of the longest migrations of any animal in the world, this particular whale’s journey is surprising. Humpback whales tend to follow the same longitudinal migration patterns (north to south), and usually visit the same cold feeding areas and warm breeding areas, according to the study.

But this whale has swapped its breeding places and It crossed three oceans transversely (from east to west) to do so, also making it the first humpback whale on record to change its breeding grounds from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. Another exception to the rule is the female humpback whale that has previously been Traveled 6,125 miles (9800 km) from the Brazilian coast to Madagascar.

“The long-distance movement presented here appears to be atypical and raises questions about what its drivers are, which could include, but not necessarily be limited to, mating strategies,” they wrote. In other words, the whale could have embarked on a voyage across the ocean to have sex.

“When he showed up, was he like, ‘Oh, hot foreigner with a great accent’?” Ted Cheeseman of Southern Cross University, who co-wrote the study, joked, The Sun reported. Guardian.

“Other reasons behind this unusual new habitat exploration may be global climate changes and changing environmental conditions and events,” the researchers wrote, adding that fluctuations in krill distribution in the Southern Ocean may have played a role. They also speculated that an increase in humpback whale numbers may lead to increased competition for mates and resources, pushing individuals to search for food and breeding grounds out of their usual route.

“The exact cause or drivers behind these shifts in breeding habitat can only be speculated due to the limited data currently available on the behavioral ecology of the humpback whale,” the researchers acknowledged. However, they added, the record migration highlights the species’ behavioral flexibility, which may help humpback whales adapt to environmental changes or could reflect evolutionary responses that lead to such pressures.

Researchers have pinpointed a humpback whale’s record-breaking journey thanks to images uploaded to the platform Happy Piscesa website co-founded by Cheeseman where whale watchers can upload photos of their whale sightings. The platform uses automated image recognition software to identify whales in photos by unique patterns on their pens (tails).

The study highlights the surprising behaviors of a complex marine animal, and may ultimately reveal insights about both humpback whales and their marine ecosystem.