THE GRAY WHALE SPENS HALF OF THE YEAR TRAVELING

Publicado en: Apr 03, 2020

THE GRAY WHALE SPENDS HALF OF THE YEAR TRAVELING. FOR THREE MONTHS, TRAVEL FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS TO THE SEMITROPICAL REGION OF BAJA CALIFORNIA

The trip of the gray whale to Mexico.

The gray whale, from the Pacific Ocean, spends half the year traveling. It takes three months to travel from the frozen arctic seas, where it feeds, to the semitropical region of Baja California, Mexico, where it reproduces; the return takes another three months. Thus a journey of 20,000 kilometers is completed.

Pregnant females start the journey in October; immature and 108 adult males follow. Immature males depart last. In December, the first whales arrive in Mexico, where they give birth to their calves. These, fed on the nutritious mother's milk, quickly produce the fat they need to travel north in March.

Newly mated females lead the group back; they will give birth exactly one year later. The adult males, 14 m long, follow them along with the females that are not in the reproductive stage. Then it is the turn of immature individuals and, finally, mothers with their children. The whales often swim close to shore, where the algae provide a hiding place from sharks and killer whales, which are the only predators of the gray whale other than humans.

At the end of May, the whales reach the Bering Sea, their source of food. There they spend the next three months, during which they feed on crustaceans, worms and mollusks, before migrating south to the warm waters of Baja California, Mexico.