The male whale traversed the Indian and Pacific Oceans - more than a third of the way around the world - to breed.
has made a marathon journey a third of the way around the world to set a new record for its species for the longest known distant travelled to breed.
The adult male humpback was first spotted by whale watchers at a breeding ground off the coast of Colombia on the western coast ofBut in 2022 the animal shocked marine experts when it turned up off Zanzibar, Tanzania, off the east coast ofIt's well understood that humpbacks are migratory animals who make annual trips of up to 8000 kilometres towards the poles to feed in the summer before journeying back to breeding grounds for the winter.
However, they generally follow the same routes each year and return to known haunts, meaning travel so far in an east-west direction is considered extremely rare. Previously, the longest recorded migration by longitudinal distance was a female humpback previously spotted at a feeding ground off the Antarctic Peninsula whoNew Zealand announces plan to ban greyhound racing
It's unclear what prompted the whale's epic new habitat exploration but the researchers speculate it could be in response to environmental changes, shifting food sources or the male testing out new mating strategies."This extreme distance movement demonstrates behavioural plasticity, which may play an important role in adaptation strategies to global environmental changes and perhaps be an evolved response to various pressures," the authors wrote.
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