Scientists have discovered that individual female humpbacks reunite each summer to feed and swim together. Even though Toothed whales, such as sperm whales, associate with one another this is a first observation of its kind for baleen whales, which are the largest of all whales.
The discovery was made by Dr Christian Ramp and colleagues of the Mingan Island Cetacean Study group based in St Lambert, Canada. They have found that female humpbacks reunite each summer to feed and swim together in the Gulf of St Lawrence, off Canada. The longest recorded friendships lasted six years. How the whales find each other each summer is still an enigma. The scientists suspects the whales use sound to find and recognize other individuals.
Details of the discovery are published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
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