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A whale of a time
Each species of whale has its own migration route
Baleen whales mostly feed on tiny marine creatures called plankton. They swallow thousands of them by sieving great gulps of water through the special fleshy filters called baleen that they have inside their mouths.
During summer, plankton concentrates in the waters of the Arctic and Antarctic. The whales gather here and feed non-stop, putting on mountains of fat, called blubber. Then, in autumn, they migrate to warmer tropical waters to breed. Here they have no need to feed, but live off their blubber.
Each species of whale has its own migration route. Grey whales spend the summer in the Arctic Ocean, feeding from June to October. In winter, when the ocean freezes, they migrate south down the coast of America towards the warm waters of the equator.
Here, during February, the females give birth. A young whale (or calf) suckles its mother’s milk to grow strong enough for the long journey north again in summer. Each year it migrates with its mother, and by the time it is mature – at 12 years – it may already have travelled over 100,000 kilometres. That’s two-and-a-half times around the world.
Last modified: 11 January 2005