An amazing swimmer, singer, and binge eater who can steal your girlfriend any day.
The real hunchback of Notre Dame.
No, we're not talking about our hunky producer Dylan.
We're talking about the humongous humpback whale.
Oh my god.
Jesus Christ.
Insane.
Hi, I'm Danielle Dufault and you're watching Animaogic.
Today we're just off the coast of Victoria BC, and we're gonna go and look for some humpback whales.
Oh, show us that tail.
Oh wow.
The humpback whale gets its name from its most emblematic feature, it's hump.
The hump is located around its dorsal fin, which can be seen when it dives.
In addition to a large hump, it also has unusually long pectoral fins,
which can be a third of its total body length, or five metres in the largest individuals.
In fact, its scientific name megaptera novaeangliae, means the giant wings of
New England, after its fins and the area where it used to be most common.
This coastline is still famous for being home to several whales.
It didn't take long to see one.
Oh, that's a humpback whale!
It's so close.
Look at that tail.
Humpback whales are members of the rorqual family, the largest mammals to ever live.
Their cousins include the gigantic Fin Whale, which can be 25 metres long and weigh 75 tons,
and the Blue Whale, which can reach 30 metres in length and weigh over 150 tons,
30 times heavier than an African elephant.
Compared to these Leviathans, humpback whales look like pocket whales,
but they're still massive at 15 metres long and 30 tons in weight.
That means they don't have to worry about us puny little humans.
I'm told that they're really not intimidated by passing boats
because they're whales and are much larger than our little boat.
I can imagine it would take a lot to intimidate a whale.
Though, they should care a little because collisions
with boats is one of the main causes of mortality.
Some of the survivors carry gnarly scars for the rest of their lives.
To get to this size they need to eat a lot.
A single humpback whale can eat over a ton of food a day.
Most of their prey weighs just a few grams,
which means humpies can catch over a million animals a day.
Their favourite prey are krill, tiny crustaceans which are some of the most
abundant animals on Earth, and schools of small fish like baby salmon and herring.
Sometimes when eating they'll do the coolest thing you'll ever see: a breach.
Just witnessed my first whale breach and here it goes again.
Oh, insane.
This behemoth just...just launched itself out of the ocean, unbelievable.
They make they make it look so easy, right?
We're still not sure why humpbacks breach.
The main theories are that they do it as a form of communication,
as a way of getting rid of parasites, or as a consequence of feeding close to the surface.
Hello.
Whale watchers and the whale guides around here
know the individuals that live in the area, or at least frequent the area.
They keep these photo guides of the bottom of the tails.
Every single whale has its own pattern, just as well as we have our own fingerprints.
Obviously, there isn't enough time in a day to fish a million krill.
Humpback whales and their rorqual brethren have adapted to turn their mouths into giant nets.
The process is called lunge feeding.
The whale swims towards a school of fish or a swarm of krill and opens its giant mouth
swallowing the whole gang.
Of course, good food attracts more diners than just whales.
Sea lions and seagulls are quick to join the party.
We've got a whole assortment of flippers sticking up right now.
We've got tail flukes and flippers, and dorsal fins from this humpback whale.
But we've also got the flippers from all these Stellar sea lions.
When the mouth opens it can take in more water weight than its own body weight.
The lower jaw can expand sideways because the left and right side are not fused like our jaws,
but rather, separate like our ribs.
The nerves and the arteries are stretchy
and they can quickly snap back once the water is pushed out .
This is the largest biomechanical event on Earth.
Their feeding tactic combined with elite diving ability
makes them the bane of the krill's existence.
These humpback whales can spend up to 20
minutes underwater before coming back up and getting a breath.
So you know after you see one and it dives down,
it might be a while before you get to see it again.
Humpbacks are unique in their family in that they can cooperate to hunt fish.
There's a technique called bubble-net feeding, where several humpbacks surround
a large school of fish and blow bubbles around it to prevent fish from escaping.
Then the circle contracts and all the whales swim up taking the entire school in one go.
Once the dumb fish are in their mouth, they use their giant tongues to push out the water.
The baleen plates, the moustache-like structures in their mouth,
strain the fish, which are then swallowed whole.
The throat of a humpback whale is about as wide as an orange.
They have no teeth, so they can't swallow anything larger than that.
If you happen to find yourself in the mouth of a humpback, don't worry, it won't swallow you alive.
Humpback whales spend their winter months down south where it's nice and warm.
They'll mate and get their party on.
But there's not much for them to eat down there so they need
to migrate north again during the summer to eat.
During their winter baccanalia, they can go without eating for a few months.
Winter is also their breeding season and competition is fierce.
Males sing songs to induce estrus and females and to give themselves a better chance of mating.
So yep, throughout Earth and across species, ladies love musicians.
All humpbacks in a region sing the same song, which can be up to 20 minutes long.
The slow deep sounds have been described as soothing.
Records of them were even included in the voyager spacecraft for aliens to check out.
Just remember aliens, they're meant to make you excited.
Unfortunately, during the commercial whaling era, humpbacks were over-hunted.
By the 1950s there were less than 500 alive in the whole world.
But thanks to worldwide protections their numbers have rebounded to almost 25,000.
I love when conservation stories have a happy ending.
It takes a lot of work, but it is possible to save our biodiversity.
So what should we talk about next time?
Please let me know in the comments
and be sure to subscribe for new episodes of Animalogic every week.
Thanks for watching, see ya.