Humpback Whale Facts – Megaptera novaeangliae

Discover the Feeding Methods and Behaviour of These Baleen Whales

Sep 17, 2009 Roberta Goli

Humpback whales are among the largest of the rorqual whales. These mammals derived their name due to their dorsal fins, which can be swelled into humps by fat deposits

Whales along with dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetacea. The order is divided into two suborders:

Suborder odontoceti, or toothed whales – dolphins, sperm whales and porpoises
Suborder mysticeti, or baleen whales – rorquals (the largest group of baleen whales), right whales and gray whales

Humpback whales fall under the suborder mysticeti, or baleen whales. They are a blue-black color with some paler areas along the underside, white-edged flippers and a large tail that it slaps against the water’s surface. They are capable of swimming at 27km per hour and can blow a mist of water from their blowholes up to 3 meters high.

Brief Overview of the Humpback Whale

The humpback whale has prominent knobs on its muzzle and their anterior (front) limbs are modified into flippers and most have a dorsal fin and tail flukes. Their dorsal fins, which can be swelled into humps by fat deposits, are often visible on the surface of the water when the whales come up for air.

Flippers are used to swim, protect calves and in surface displays. Humpback whales have the longest pectoral fin of all the whales and it is almost a third as long as their body length. Nostrils are in the form of single or double blowholes on the top of the head and no hair can be seen apart from a few bristles around the muzzle. Upon exhalation it can spray mist up to 3 meters in the air.

Humpback whales can dive to 200 meters depth and stay submerged for up to 30 minutes. They are able to travel at up to 27km per hour if necessary, however, normal traveling speeds are between 4-14km per hour.

Current taxonomy for the humpback whale is:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Family: Balaenopteridae
Genus: Megaptera
Species: M. novaeangliae

Humpback Whale Feeding, Breeding and Behaviour

Baleen whales are usually larger than toothed whales and have a straining device of whalebone (baleen) used to filter plankton instead of teeth. Humpback whales are filter feeders. To read more about this type of feeding as well as other feeding methods, read The Different Feeding Methods of Animals.

During summer, Humpback whales feed far from shore in colder waters closer to the poles. Humpbacks are well known for their breaching (leaping into the air and landing back in the water). It is thought that they do this to stun fish before feeding and to communicate to other pod members.

Humpbacks also group in pairs and blow curtains of bubbles under water to corral schools of fish together. Fish won’t swim through the bubbles so they crowd together, making it easier for the whales to scoop them into their large mouths as the swim by.

When winter approaches, humpback whales move to warmer shallower waters to breed. Male whales produce songs that are thought to attract available females and keep rival males at a distance. Humpback whales don’t feed during this time, living off their fat reserves, however, pregnant females will continue to feed and arrive at the breeding waters just before it is time to give birth.

Whales reach maturity at 4-5 years and a single calf is born every 2 years. Gestation lasts between 330-345 days and once the calf is born, it will stay by the mother’s side for a year, requiring 40 liters of milk per day for the first 5 months of its life.

Humpbacks grow to 12.5-15m (41-49.5ft) in length and weigh around 30 tonnes (66,000lb). Lifespan for a whale is 70 years although humpback whales are considered vulnerable due to whaling still practiced by certain countries, particularly Japan, who kill hundreds of whales yearly claiming it to be for scientific research.

Resource and further reading:

You may also like to read Echolocation in Whales and Dolphins and Why do Whales Beach Themselves?

Hickman, Roberts, Larson & I’Anson, 2004, ‘Mammals’ in Integrated Principles of Zoology, 12th edition, ed. McGraw Hill, New York, chapter 28.