What is the information about humpback whales?

Humpback whale is a kind of whale, also known as big-winged whale, humpback whale, giant arm whale, saw arm whale and so on. it is a marine mammal of the humpback whale of the baleen whale. it is famous for its leaping out of the water, long forewings and complex calls. It lives in all the oceans of the world. China is distributed in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea, less in the northern Yellow Sea, and more in southern Taiwan. Let's take a look at what humpback whales have.

The appearance characteristics of humpback whales

Although the humpback whale is not the largest whale in the world, it is also a well-deserved behemoth in the ocean, fat and bloated. The average adult body length of a humpback whale is 12.9 meters for males and 13.7 meters for females. The largest recorded female is 18 meters, weighs 25 million 30 tons, the head is relatively small, flat, the snout is wide, the mouth is large, and there are 20 to 30 tumor-like protuberances around the mouth. Interestingly, there is a hair growing on each protuberance. But the rest of the body is hairless. Whale beard is short and wide, each side is more than 200, the dorsal fin is low, short and small, the back is not as straight as other cetaceans, but bow upward to form a beautiful curve, hence the name "humpback whale", also known as "humpback whale" or "humpback whale".

Feeding habits of humpback whales

Humpback whales feed mainly on krill, a small crustacean less than 1 cm long, as well as squid, hairy scale fish, jade muscle fish and other small fish. when the mouth is open, its special elastic ligament can make the lower palate fall off temporarily, form an angle of more than 90 degrees, the transverse diameter of the mouth can reach 4.5 meters, can swallow a large number of krill or smaller fish, but the diameter of its esophagus appears to be large. You can't swallow larger food, which may be one of the reasons why you can only eat small animals. During the overwintering period, in order to maintain the physical strength needed by the body, you have to eat a lot of food in summer, often for 18 hours in a row. Due to sufficient sunshine, plankton thrives in the bays of the northern glacier zone, raising krill that feed on zooplankton, often clustered together by millions, thus providing an extremely abundant food source for humpback whales.

The social habits of humpback whales

Humpback whale is a kind of social animal, its temperament is very docile and amiable, and adults often express their feelings by touching each other, but when fighting with enemies, they use their long flippers or powerful tails to hit each other hard, or even hit each other with their heads. as a result, the flesh often breaks, blood flows, and the speed of swimming is very slow, about 8 to 15 kilometers per hour, just like an iceberg when swimming slowly on the sea. Most of the body sank under the water, sometimes like a free-floating island, and its exposed body can also be seen on the coast. Its swimming and frolicking skills are very superb, sometimes it swims quickly for a distance under the water, then suddenly breaks out of the water and rises slowly vertically, until the flippers reach the surface of the water, the body begins to bend back slowly, like an acrobat's backward roll.

Breeding habits of humpback whales

The mate of a humpback whale is monogamous, and the female gives birth every two years, with a pregnancy period of about 10 months and one calf per litter. When the female carries the calf, another male is often close behind. The task is to intercept other invading whales or boats, but there is nothing they can do when confronted with ferocious and cunning orcas. Like other mammals, the female feeds her cubs with milk, which is automatically squeezed out by the nipples and sucked in the water. The cubs grow rapidly and can gain 40 to 50 kilograms in weight every day. What is even more impressive is that the female provides all the nutrients for the growth of the cubs during breastfeeding, but she hasn't eaten for a long time until a few months later. The relationship between the female and the calf is also often affectionate, with the calf touching the female with two fins, sometimes as if grasped on the female, and the life span of humpback whales is 60 to 70 years.

Geographical distribution of humpback whales

Humpback whales are found in all major oceans, distributed in the vast sea surface from the Antarctic ice margin to 65 degrees north latitude, and have the characteristics of migration. They live in cool high-latitude waters in summer, but mate and breed in tropical or subtropical waters. They usually migrate as long as 25000 kilometers a year, making them one of the best travelers among mammals, with the exception of humpback whales living in the Arabian Sea. They live in those tropical waters for years, but are not found in the eastern Mediterranean, Baltic and Arctic seas, and are distributed in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.