The whale broke the record for the longest great circle distance ever recorded for its species. Scientists believe he was looking for a female to mate.
A male humpback whale broke records by traveling an unprecedented distance across three oceans in search of mating opportunities, according to a new published in Royal Society Open Science.
This trip represents the greatest great circle distance ever documented for the species (Megaptera novaeangliae), covering 13 046 kilometers from the eastern Pacific Ocean, off Colombia, to the southwest Indian Ocean, near Zanzibar.
Although humpback whales are known for their annual north-south migrations of more than 8,000 kilometers between feeding and breeding grounds, east-west travel across ocean basins is extremely rare.
The whale likely followed the prevailing currents in the Southern Ocean and may have interacted with other humpback whale populations in the Atlantic along the way, according to Ted Cheeseman, study co-author and director of the Happywhale image database. “One of the most significant discoveries was the whale interaction with various populations along the way,” noted Cheeseman.
Typically, humpback whales follow predictable migration patterns and remain in distinct population groups. However, this male’s extraordinary journey highlights a previously undocumented flexibility in migratory behavior, explains the .
The discovery was based on photographic evidence collected between 2013 and 2022 and uploaded to Happywhale. The platform combined images of the same sexually mature male from two distant locations, marking a remarkable feat in citizen science and whale research.
Researchers believe that the search for reproduction was a primary motivation, as the whale has been seen in competitive groups in both Colombia and Zanzibar – situations in which whales males compete for access to a female.
Environmental factors such as climate changefood distribution and population growth may also have influenced this unique behavior.
This record-breaking voyage not only sheds light on the extraordinary adaptability of humpback whales, but also raises questions about how environmental changes and population dynamics could influence future migrations.
