The Humpback Whale

Facts: The Humpback Whale is black in color with a white underbelly but rarely can be all white. The Humpback also has disticintive bumps on its head and fins. It is the 8th biggest whale and lives Worldwide. Humpbacks are gentle and very playful, that is why they are a favorite to whale watchers because they jump out of the water and do other tricks all the time. The Humpback was also one of main whale species targeted by whalers, thankfully though the population has increased and is at a goodish 18,000-20,000. There are 3 subspecies of The Humpback, the North Alantic Species, North Pacific, and the Southern Hemphispere species. Humpbacks have a lifespan of 50-60 years. A cool fact about Humpbacks is that the whistling noises they make, also called and known as their "songs" are the longest and most complex noises in the animal kingdom. A way to identify Humpbacks is to look at their flippers, the Atlantic Humpback's flipper is mostly all white on both sides as the Pacific Humpback's fin is basically all black with a little bit of white on the underside. Another identifaction method to identify humpbacks is looking on the pattern on the bottom of their fluke fins, each Humpbacks white pigmentation pattern is different, which is how scientists find and know which Humpback is who.

Type: Rorqual. Scientific Name: Megaptera Novangliae. Diet: Krill. Family: Balaenopteridae. Calf Weight: 1 ton. Gestation Period: 10-18 months. Status: Least Concern. Habtiat: Ocean. Threats: Nets, Ships, Whalers. Group Size: 1-15

History: As you might know the Humpback was one of the most hunted whales by whalers and was nearly hunted to extinction for their prized blubber meat and parts for trophies,  the population of Humpbacks was much bigger before whaling, at around a number of 300,000 Humpbacks but since there was so much around they were a main target for whalers and around 250,000 Humpback whales were killed. Thankfully Humpbacks numbers have made a good increase even though its still a small fraction of it's original number