Species Guide: Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
Family: Balaenopteridae
This article covers 20 amazing facts about the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) that you might not have known.
Fun Fact #1: What’s In A Name?
The name Humpback derives from the distinctive hump on their backs which becomes visible as the whale dives from the surface of the ocean. The feature is unique to Humpback Whales. Humpback Whales range from grey to blue-black on their upper parts, and predominantly white and grey on their underparts.
Fun Fact #2: They Are Big, But Not That Big!
Humpback Whales are one of the largest mammals on the planet, bigger than most known dinosaurs. Humpback Whales typically grow between 14.6 and 19m in length and weigh up to 36 metric tonnes. This sounds very big, but the Humpback is tiny compared to the Blue Whale, which has a length of up to 33 m and weighs up to 112 metric tonnes1.
Fun Fact #3: But They Are The Fin Champions!
Humpback Whales might not be the biggest mammals on the planet, but they do have the longest pectoral fins2. Their scientific name Megaptera translates to “Big Winged” and is a direct reference to their extremely long pectoral fins3.
Fun Fact #4: Humpback Whales Have 3 Stomachs!
Humpback Whales have three stomachs! The compartments are similar to those found in a cow or a hippo. Humpback Whales swallow large quantities of food without the need for it to be chewed to break it down.
Food enters the fore stomach from the esophagus and is churned. It then enters the main stomach, which contains glands that secrete enzymes, mucus, and acid to break the food down. Finally, the food enters the pyloric stomach where the acids are neutralized and enzymes are secreted to digest fats.
Fun Fact #5: Their Markings Are As Unique As Fingerprints
Scientists can identify individual Humpback Whales. It turns out that their tails (or more correctly called flukes) are as unique as human fingerprints. The tails have a serrated edge with a large pointed tip. Scientists have been using these, together with the white patterns on the pectoral fins, bellies, and flukes to identify and track Humpback Whales since the 1970s.5
Fun Fact #6: They Have Sieves Instead Of Teeth
Humpbacks might be one of the largest animals on the planet, but they eat some of the smallest animals. Instead of teeth, humpbacks have baleen plates which act as sieves to filter the water out of the food. Water is then expelled through their blowholes. Most of their food consists of krill and plankton, though they will eat small fish such as sardines, cod, and mackerel.
Fun Fact #7: They Go On A Diet for Up To 8 Months A Year
Humpback Whales consume up to 900 kg of food to store enough blubber to sustain them through winter migrations. The reason is that during their migration they will generally only eat occasionally, so they need to store enough blubber to last for up to 8 months without a meal.6
Fun Fact #8: They Can Use Tools To Hunt!
Humpbacks typically seem to enjoy their own company and travel alone. However, they occasionally gather in large groups to hunt. Humpbacks in Alaska use a method called bubble-net feeding and is equivalent to using tools to hunt.7 One or more whales dive deep into the water and create a spiral of bubbles to force schools of fish up to the surface in large densities. The whales then swim through the schools to catch their prey.
Fun Fact #9: Humpbacks Are The Undisputed Migration Champions
Some Humpbacks migrate further than any other animal on the planet. Traveling from their breeding grounds in warm tropical oceans to their feeding grounds in colder oceans; can mean a journey of up to 8,000 km.7
Fun Fact #10: They Need To Move
The reason Humpback Whales migrate is to protect their young from colder winter waters. Young whales are still building blubber reserves to protect them from the cold.
Fun Fact #11: Not All Humpbacks Migrate!
The Humpbacks in the Arabian Sea are the most isolated group of Humpback Whales on the planet. They stick around the Arabian Sea all year around feeding and breeding in the area. It’s estimated that they have remained this way for more than 70,000 years, and are therefore treated as a separate sub-species.8
Fun Fact #12: Humpbacks Have Specialized Sensors
It is thought that Humpback Whales have specialized sensors on their faces to judge prey density in the water when feeding. Look closely at the face of a Humpback, there are several bumps on their face called tubercules. Each tubercule has a sensory hair and is surrounded by sensory nerve cells in the skin.9,10
Fun Fact #13: Flying Through The Air!
Humpbacks are not the fastest animals in the ocean, but they’re not slow coaches either; their maximum speed is around 17mph. Whilst they may lack impressive top speeds, they make up for this with sheer power. They can use their massive tail fin (or fluke) to propel themselves completely out of the water; called a breach, then landing in a massive splash of water. Research suggests that whales breach to remove pests from their skin, or that they may do this for fun.11
Fun Fact #14: Operatics In The Ocean
All Humpback Whales have various vocalizations, but male Humpbacks have complex songs that last for up to 30 minutes. These songs are the most varied within the animal kingdom. Each population of Humpback Whales has its own unique song. Songs are learned and then repeated amongst the group. Researchers think that the songs are used to attract females and/or to let other males know that they are in an area.12
Humpback Whale Song:
Lennart Jeppsson, xeno-canto.org
Fun Fact #15: Weaponized Barnacles!
The head, fins, nose, and flippers of Humpback Whales are often covered in large barnacles. These are quite useful weapons when chasing away predators such as the Orca Whale & Killer Whale, as well as when in head-to-head combat with rival male Humpbacks.
Fun Fact #16: Guardians Of The Ocean
Humpbacks seem to know that Orca Whales and Killer Whales target their young. Consequently, Humpbacks are often chasing these predators out of their territory, whether or not they have calves in their group.
Fun Fact #17: Humpbacks Live A Long Time
It’s difficult to tell the age of a whale, though scientists believe they live more than 50 years, possibly longer.13
Fun Fact #18: Motherly Love
Mothers and calves can often swim closely together in what looks like acts of affection between them. The mother feeds their calves for almost a year with thick and fatty milk.
Fun Fact #19: Whales Sequester Carbon
Whales are the equivalent of trees in a forest. As they eat, they sequester carbon in their bodies. Whale poop creates phytoplankton blooms. These help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. When whales die, their carbon-rich bodies typically sink to the seafloor which prevents carbon from returning into the atmosphere.
Fun Fact #20: Back From The Brink Of Extinction
Humpback Whales were an endangered species until 1988 due to human persecution and were classified as Endangered by the International Union For The Conservation of Nature. This classification changed between 1988 to 2008 as Vulnerable and now sits as Least Concern. Although, it’s worth noting that the subpopulations in the Red Sea remain Endangered.14
CITATIONS
- McClain, C. R.; Balk, M. A.; Benfield, M. C.; Branch, T. A.; Chen, C.; Cosgrove, J.; Dove, A. D. M.; Helm, R. R.; Hochberg, F. G.; Gaskins, L. C.; Lee, F. B.; Marshall, A.; McMurray, S. E.; Schanche, C.; Stone, S. N. (2015). “Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna”. PeerJ. e715. doi:10.7717/peerj.715. PMC 4304853. PMID 25649000. ↩︎
- Clapham, Phillip J. (26 February 2009). “Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae“. In Perrin, William F.; Wursig, Bernd; Thewissen, J. G. M. “Hans” (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. pp. 582–584. ISBN 978-0-08-091993-5. ↩︎
- Humpback Whale. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration. ↩︎
- Langer, Peter. Comparative Anatomy of the Gastrointestinal Tract in Eutheria II
Taxonomy, Biogeography and Food. Laurasiatheria. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2017. Accessed February 22, 2025. ProQuest Ebook Central. ↩︎ - Kniest, Eric, et al. “Fluke Matcher: A Computer-Aided Matching System for Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Flukes.” Marine Mammal Science, 2010, doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2009.00368.x ↩︎
- Clapham, Phillip J. (26 February 2009). “Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae“. In Perrin, William F.; Wursig, Bernd; Thewissen, J. G. M. “Hans” (eds.). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. pp. 582–584. ISBN 978-0-08-091993-5. ↩︎
- Horton, Travis W., et al. “Straight as an Arrow: Humpback Whales Swim Constant Course Tracks During Long-distance Migration.” Biol Lett, vol. 7, 2011, pp. 674-679., doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0279 ↩︎
- Pomilla, Cristina, et al. “The World’s Most Isolated and Distinct Whale Population? Humpback Whales of the Arabian Sea.” PLoS ONE, vol. 9, 2014, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114162 ↩︎
- Mercado, Eduardo III (2014). “Tubercles: What Sense Is There?”. Aquatic Mammals. 40 (1): 95–103. doi:10.1578/AM.40.1.2014.95. ↩︎
- Eldridge, S. A.; Mortazavi, F.; Rice, F. L.; Ketten, D. R.; Wiley, D. N.; Lyman, E; Reidenberg, J; Hanke, F. D.; DeVreese, S; Strobel, S. M.; Rosene, D. L. (2022). “Specializations of somatosensory innervation in the skin of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)”. The Anatomical Record Special Issue: Marine Mammal Sensory Systems. 305 (3): 514–534. doi:10.1002/ar.24856. ↩︎
- Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, edited by Bernd Würsig, et al., Elsevier Science & Technology, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=5154042. ↩︎
- Mercado, Eduardo. “Song Morphing by Humpback Whales: Cultural or Epiphenomenal?.” Front Psychol, vol. 11, 2021, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.574403 ↩︎
- Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, edited by Bernd Würsig, et al., Elsevier Science & Technology, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=5154042. ↩︎
- IUCN Redlist ↩︎
