Biologists Stumped as to How Humpback Whale Ended Up in the Middle of the Amazon Jungle
The idea of traveling constantly from a warm climate to a cold climate and back again sounds like a lot of work. We love to travel, but we need someplace to call home. Yet, there are many animals who cannot survive without the constant traveling. It’s hardwired into them.
Butterflies migrate. Penguins migrate. Humpback whales migrate.
If you live near the coast, you might know that you can go on whale watching trips to spot the migrating whales. It’s really quite magnificent.
Humpback whales are found in every ocean in the world, and they can be up to 62.5 feet long. That’s huge!
The humpback whales in the Arabian Sea don’t migrate. All other humpback whales migrate to polar water to find food. In the Northern Hemisphere, humpback whales migrate north in the summer and return to tropical southern waters in the winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, humpback whales travel south in the summer and migrate north in the winter.
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Scientists in Brazil were stunned to discover a dead humpback whale caught in the mangroves in February. By this time, it should have already migrated thousands of miles away to Antarctica.
The humpback whale appeared to have been dead for a few days by the time it was discovered in the Amazon jungle. The whale was about 26 feet long, so it was quite young, not nearly full grown.
Members of Bicho D’Água, a conservation group, first discovered the whale. They saw vultures circling a mangrove on Marajó Island, and when they followed the vultures, they spotted the whale.
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While marine biologists do not know exactly why the humpback whale didn’t migrate, one theory is that it got separated from its mother. As far as how the whale ended up 50 feet inland, most likely, the tide washed it ashore.
As Renata Emin, the president of Bicho D’Água, told G1, a Brazilian news site, “The question is, What was a humpback whale doing in the month of February on the northern coast of Brazil? It’s unusual.” She added, “We are collecting information, identifying marks on the body, to determine if it was trapped in a net or hit by a boat.”
For more information on this mysterious humpback whale death, watch the video below.
Did you know that humpback whales migrate every year? Have you ever been on a whale watching excursion? Why do you think this humpback whale didn’t migrate to Antarctica?
