December 31, 2024
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Some of these whales can live up to 150 years, double the age previously thought
Whales have been known to live up to 200 years, and a new study has found that southern right whales can live up to 150 years if not hunted.
right whale (Eubalaena australis) and its offspring in the waters of Nuevo Gulf, Argentina.
Blue Planet Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
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Southern whales They have a lifespan of over 100 years, and 10% can live to be over 130 years old, according to our new research. In the journal Science Advances. Some of these whales can live up to 150 years. This life expectancy is almost double the 70-80 years that people normally live.
North Atlantic whales they were also believed to have a maximum lifespan about 70 years. However, we found this is in grave danger The species’ current average lifespan is only 22 years, and they rarely live beyond 50 years.
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These two species are closely related – only 25 years ago they were considered a single species – so we would expect them to have a long lifespan. We attribute the significant difference in the longevity of North Atlantic right whales to human-caused mortality, particularly from fishing gear and boating accidents.
We have made the following new age calculations using photo identification of individual female whales over several decades. Each whale can be identified year by year through photographs. When they die, they cease to be a “recreation” of photography and disappear. Using these photos, we developed what scientists call “survival curves,” estimating the probability that whales will disappear from the photographic record as they age. From these survival curves, we could calculate potential maximum life spans.
25 years ago, scientists working with indigenous Arctic whalers showed that bowhead whales could live and Even more than 200 years. Among their evidence was the discovery of stone harpoon points that had not been used since the mid-1800s, embedded in the blubber of recently killed whales by traditional whalers. Analysis of proteins in the eyes of hunted whales provided further evidence of their long lives. Like right whales, before this analysis, researchers believed that whales lived about 80 years, and that humans were the longest-lived mammals.
In the years following that report, scientists tried to figure out what allowed bowhead whales to live so long. But a new study of the longevity of two close relatives of bowheads shows that other species of whales can also live very long lives.
Why does it matter?
Understanding how long wild animals live has huge implications for better protecting them. Animals with a very long life it usually reproduces very slowly and many years can pass between births. The life history of whales – especially the age at which females begin to breed and the interval between calves – has a large impact on their potential life span. Conservation and management strategies that do not plan accordingly are more likely to fail. This is particularly important given the expected impacts of climate change.
What is not yet known
There are many other large whales, including blue, fin, sei, humpback, gray and sperm whales. Like whales and whales, there were these too almost exterminated by whaling. Scientists now believe they live to be around 80 or 90 years old, but that’s what we thought about bowheads and whales until data showed they can live much longer.
How long can these other whale species live? It was only in the 1960s that industrial whaling ended, removing old whales from the world’s whale populations. Although many whale populations are recovering, there has not been enough time for whales born after the end of industrial whaling to age.
It is possible, though likely, that many other species of whales will prove to be long-lived.
What other research is being done
Other studies have found loss of elderly people It is a phenomenon that occurs in the largest animal species from the population. It reduces the reproductive capacity of many species. According to the researchers, this represents a real loss of animal culture and wisdom, which impairs their ability to survive in the face of changing conditions.
What’s next
We want to better understand how whaling affected the number of old individuals in current whale populations and when the number of old individuals will recover to pre-whaling levels. Early results suggest that it could be another 100 years before whale populations truly recover, even for species whose populations are now as old as they were before whaling.
For North Atlantic right whales, our research shows that even when the population was growing, the management actions taken were not enough to prevent these whales from dying too young.
The Brief research It is a summary of interesting academic works.
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