Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
Mammal
A giant singing whale with wing-like flippers that catches fish in nets of bubbles and travels thousands of kilometres each year.
💡 Fun Facts
- It blows rings of bubbles to herd small fish into a tight ball, then lunges up through the middle to feed — a clever trick called bubble-net feeding.
- Its round-trip migration of up to about 20,000 kilometres is among the longest of any mammal.
- The males sing long, complex songs that slowly change over time, and humpbacks are now seen more and more off Scotland and south-west England.
Name Story
Megaptera novaeangliae
means “the big-winged whale of New England”
What does its name mean?
- Megaptera — big wing — the huge, wing-like pectoral finsGreek megas 'great' + pteron 'wing'
- novaeangliae — of New England — where it was first describedLatin Nova Anglia 'New England'
The name celebrates its most striking feature — 'big wing', for the enormous wing-like flippers it waves through the water — and remembers New England, where it was first described.