Humpback whale travels farther than any mammal ever recorded.

Humpback whales have long impressed us with their incredible travel distances, often covering thousands of miles between feeding and breeding areas.

Scientists recently recorded an adult male humpback whale making an unexpected journey from South America to Africa, traveling more than 8,106 miles (13,046 kilometers).

This new finding suggests there is still much to learn about how whales spread across oceans, especially in the Southern Hemisphere.

“These animals are distinct individuals, and they’ll do surprising things. These oceans are very much connected spaces, and whales travel beyond borders,” enthused Ted Cheeseman, a marine biologist at Southern Cross University.

Record-breaking journey

A new study detailed this whale’s journey as the longest migration ever recorded for a single whale. The trek also marked the first time researchers documented an adult male humpback traveling between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The whale was first spotted off the coast of Colombia in 2013 and seen again near that area a few years later. But in 2022, it turned up near Zanzibar, off the coast of East Africa.

Researchers noted that the typical migration route can exceed 4,971 miles (8,000 kilometers) one way, and this whale’s path was close to twice that distance, according to the study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Scientists say this unexpected movement sheds light on how adaptable humpbacks can be. They say that global data are needed to better understand whale behavior.

Such large-scale research could show how whales respond to environmental changes and whether factors like shifting ocean temperatures or reduced food availability push them to seek new territories.

The whale’s travel between distinct breeding grounds highlights that humpbacks, while often returning to the same places, are not completely predictable.

“Our dogmatic thinking is that (whales) always go to the place where they came from,” said Ari Friedlaender, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the study.

“But there has to be some movement where you get some (animal) explorers that decide, for whatever reason, to follow a different path,” Friedlaender told CNN.

Source: www.earth.com

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