National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Photo: Southern Whale Migration Overlapping Northern Whale Breeding Grounds


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A female whale and its weeks-old calf swim through the blue waters of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

New research shows that the whales, known for making the longest mammalian migration, are mostly driven to travel in search of warmer waters. As temperature patterns shift, whales from the south are migrating farther north, crossing into the breeding grounds of northern humpback populations.

Photograph by Flip Nicklin/NGS