Some Particularities of the Southern Right Whale

Do you know the Southern Right Whale? Well, we tell you that it is a cetacean that belongs to the family of baleen whales, of immense size and colossal weight, which makes it one of the most majestic animals in the world and lives in very cold waters, but if you want To know more, keep reading this post.

southern-right-whale-1

The Southern Right Whale, is it sociable?

The southern right whale is quite curious and playful around humans. There have been cases in which they have wanted to carry small boats and kayaks on their backs. It is usual for them to interact in a friendly way with dolphins and humpback whales.

Some facts about the Southern Right Whale

  • Region: Antarctica
  • Travel destinations: Antarctic Peninsula, Falkland Islands, South Georgia Islands, Tristan da Cunha
  • Name: southern right whale (Eubalaena australis).
  • Length: 15 meters.
  • Weight: 47 tons.
  • Distribution: subtropical and sub-Antarctic waters of the southern hemisphere.
  • Conservation Status: minor concern.
  • Diet: copepods and krill.
  • Appearance: dark gray or black, sometimes with white patches on the underside.

How does it feed?

The southern right whale, as we have already said, belongs to the family of baleen whales. To feed, they swallow mouthfuls of water and close their mouth to then expel it through specialized plates, which are known as barbs, which manage to filter the water and retain food. The food that is trapped in the baleen is what is later ingested.

However, the southern right whales have a difference from their fellow whales and that is that they swim in the middle of the schools of krill with their mouths open, and manage to filter the krill at the moment they advance, without swallowing large mouthfuls of water.

How fast can you swim?

According to research, the right whale is slow, because on average, they swim at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour.

What are courtship rituals like?

Females reach sexual maturity around 9 years of age. They give birth every 3 or 4 years only. Their breeding season extends from mid-July to August.

The female is surrounded by the loving males. The female will rotate onto her back in order to keep her genitals up, out of the water and out of reach of the males until she feels she is ready to copulate. She does not always achieve copulation due to the special characteristics of the male's penis, which is 3 meters long and maneuverable.

The males, when not fighting, push each other in order to gain access to the female. When she is ready, the female grants multiple access to the males. The males will then produce a gallon of sperm, strong enough to outrun the sperm of preceding males. The gestation period lasts a full year and when born, the calf weighs about 1.500 kilos.

How long does the Southern Right Whale live?

There is an idea that the southern right whale lives on average about 50 years in the wild, but the information available is scarce and there are examples of similar species that live up to 100 years of age.

According to what has been observed, there are about 10.000 southern right whales in the world.

southern-right-whale-2

Does the Southern Right Whale have natural predators?

What has been known is that the southern right whale is attacked by the cook gulls of Patagonia. Gulls inflict a large number of wounds on them, leaving huge holes in the whales' skin. Also, because of these injuries, the whales spend a large portion of their time evading the seagulls, which means they spend less time feeding the calves. Their calves are also vulnerable to killer whales and great white sharks.

10 key facts about the southern right whale 

Whales are of key importance to the oceans. It can be said that they are the engineers of the ecosystems, because they collaborate in many ways to keep life in the sea healthy, through the redistribution of nutrients through the oceans in various directions.

The southern right whale performs the same activity. But today their home in the international waters of the South Atlantic is threatened by industrial fishing. In this section of the post we are going to tell you ten facts about the southern right whale that will interest you.

1.- Its name is Eubalaena australis: It is a species of cetacean of the Balaenidae family, whose habitat is found in the southern hemisphere, between 20° and 60° latitude in the South Pacific, South Atlantic and Indian oceans. south.

southern-right-whale-3

2.- It is one of the largest whales: They have an average size between 13 and 15 meters in length in the case of males and approximately 16 meters in females. Their weight is around 40 tons and at birth they already have a length of 3 to 5 meters, from the snout to the tail.

3.- They have calluses on their skin that are well known because they work like fingerprints, by means of which each whale can be identified throughout its life. These calluses are raised areas of skin, which are more than 5 centimeters thick, that appear on different parts of their heads.

4.- They are very calm mammals, curious and very slow to swim. In order to communicate they make jumps and hit the water with their fins.

5.- It is thought that they can live between 50 and 100 years of age.

6.- They do not have teeth, but long baleen, which are sheets of keratin that hang from the upper jaw of the whale. These beards are what allow them to feed by filtering, as we have explained before.

7.- Their main food is krill and small fish.

8.- A third of all the right whales in the world make use of the protected bays of the Valdés Peninsula, in Argentina, as a habitat for mating and to have their young between the months of May and December.

9.- These whales can be seen in Argentina, in the Valdés Peninsula, Australia, South Africa, Chile, Uruguay, Tristán de Acuña, which is a British overseas dependency and in New Zealand.

10.- Unlike North Atlantic and North Pacific right whales, which are in danger of extinction, the southern right whale has been able to recover from centuries of commercial hunting.

If you liked this reading, you probably also want to read:


Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Actualidad Blog
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.