Whales make epic migrations, surprise scientists.

Scientists say a humpback whale has recorded the longest and most unusual migration ever recorded, possibly caused by climate change.

It was spotted in the Pacific Ocean off Colombia in 2017, then appeared several years later in the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar – a distance of at least 13,000 km.

Experts believe that this epic journey could be an odyssey to reduce food stocks due to climate change or perhaps to find a mate.

Ekaterina Kalashnikova of the Tanzania Cetaceans Program said the feat was truly impressive and unusual even for this highly migratory species.

The photo below shows the same whale taken off the coast of Zanzibar in 2022.

Dr Kalashnikova said it was highly likely that a humpback whale had been recorded traveling.

Humpback whales live in all oceans around the world. They cover long distances each year and have one of the longest migrations of any mammal, swimming from tropical breeding grounds to feeding grounds in cooler waters.

But the male’s journey was even more spectacular, involving two distant breeding grounds.

One theory is that climate change is altering the abundance of small shrimp-like curled humpback whales, forcing them to travel further in search of food.

Alternatively, the whales may be seeking new breeding grounds as populations are boosted by global conservation efforts.

“While the exact causes are unknown, drivers may include environmental changes, extreme environmental events (which are more frequent today), and evolutionary mechanisms of species,” said Dr. Kalashnikova.

The stray male was among a group of humpbacks pulled by a research vessel off the Pacific coast of Colombia in 2013.

It was subsequently identified in a similar area in 2017 and off Zanzibar in 2022.

The sightings are separated by a great circle distance of 13,046 kilometers – the minimum distance for the path the whale would have taken, scientists say, although it is likely to be much longer.

Since the Earth is a sphere, the shortest path between two points is represented by the great circle distance, which corresponds to an arc that connects two points on a sphere.

The paper’s findings are based on millions of whale photos submitted to the citizen science website happywhale.com by researchers, whale watchers and members of the public.

The database uses artificial intelligence to match the individual shapes and patterns of humpback whale tails, or flukes, thereby mapping their movements around the world.

The research is published in the journal, Royal Society Open Science.

Learn more about humpback whales at The Secret of Antarctica’s Giants on BBC iPlayer.