Meet the Bryde's whale, a type of baleen whale that's part of the rorqual group, which also includes blue whales and humpback whales.
How big are Bryde's whales?
Males grow to 15m long while females are slightly longer at 16.5m and they can weigh up to 20 tonnes.
What do they look like?
Long and slender-bodied, these whales are a blue-grey colour, their skin mottled with circular scars from sharks of parasites. What sets them apart from other baleen whales are the three parallel ridges on the top of their head, which make up a quarter of their entire body length. Their pale underside may appear light purple or pink when they move.
Where do Bryde's whales live?
Bryde’s whales are found in every ocean in the world – but since they prefer warmer waters of 16 degrees Celsius or more, they typically favour tropical, subtropical and warm temperate waters. They’re the only species of baleen whale with this preference.
What do Bryde's whales eat?
A Bryde’s whale has 285–350 baleen plates on each side of its mouth. These in turn are covered with bristles. Like human fingernails, the baleen grows continuously.
How do they reproduce?
Reaches maturity when 11–12m long, at about 7 years old. Females give birth at 2-year intervals, after a gestation of 11–12 months. May breed all year, but in temperate waters reproduction could be linked to a seasonal migration to warmer areas.
Why are they rarely seen or recorded?
Bryde’s whales rarely engage in aerobatics like the breaching and fin-slapping displays that endear humpbacks to boatloads of tourists. They do not perform sustained, bewitching songs either (though they do make powerful low-frequency calls). In addition, they are highly nomadic, appearing in an area unannounced when there is an abundance of food near the surface, then disappearing again as fast as the resource is depleted.
Main image: Getty Images
