Early Arrival for Baby Humpbacks
Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by admin in Whale Reports
So early in the season, two new born humpback whales were observed this week bonding and playing with their mothers off Cape Moreton.
Traditionally the humpbacks will give birth to their calves in the warm waters of the Whitsunday’s, around the end of August through to mid September, it is then that they will start their return journey back to the Antarctic, however what a delight it was to see two new born calves this week.
As we approached I thought it was a dolphin slapping its tail playing with the whales, then just as if to show her baby off the humpback mother swam directly to the boat and the little fellow put on a playful display.
A female will have a calf every second year, this calf can weigh between 1 – 3 tonnes , be 4-5 metres in length and will drink up to 600 litres of milk per day, it is one of the longest bonding relationships in the mammal world with the calves remaining with their mums for up to eighteen months before she will wean her baby off, the gestation period is eleven months and they become sexually mature at the age of five.
If they are born on the East coast of Australia they will continue to migrate the east coast and likewise with the west coast.
Perhaps the warm sheltered waters of our bay are fast becoming the chosen breeding grounds for the Mums to birth.
The humbacks become sexually mature at the age of five and the gestation period is 11 months
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