Singers
Male humpbacks sing long, complex songs that can last for hours. All the males in an area sing the same song.
Polar seas
Humpback whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
A big, dark whale with a knobbly head and flippers a third as long as its body.
- Size
- About 14 to 16m long
- Look for it
- June to September
- Where
- Every ocean: feeding in polar seas in summer, breeding in warm seas in winter
Swims after you with slow beats of its tail. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Humpback whale
Good to know
Six things about the humpback whale
The longest arms
Its flippers can be five metres long, the longest of any animal.
Breaching
A humpback can throw almost its whole body out of the water and crash back with a huge splash.
Fishing with bubbles
A group blows a ring of bubbles round a shoal of fish to trap it, then swims up through the middle.
A long swim
They swim up to 8,000 kilometres each way between their feeding and breeding seas.
A tail like a fingerprint
The black and white pattern under each tail is different, so scientists can tell whales apart.
The real thing
Photos of the humpback whale
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Humpbacks are seen more and more round Britain, off Shetland, Cornwall and the Scottish islands. Look for a bushy blow and a knobbly back.
How to help
Humpbacks recovered well after whaling stopped. The main dangers now are fishing ropes and ships: support groups that work on both.
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