Humpback whales are found in all major oceans around the world, but humpback whales tend to remain in the three main oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, forming three huge populations. Humpback whales usually live in herds. Unfortunately, at the moment there are less than 15,000 humpback whales left in the wild.
The population of humpback whales decreased by almost 90% when whale hunting became popular among humans, which means that the humpback whale was on the verge of extinction. As new laws regulating whaling activities were put in place, the population of humpback whales began to revive, and today it is believed that about 80,000 humpback whales remained in the wild.
Humpback whales spend the summer months in cold, polar waters, and then migrate south in winter to warm tropical waters, where humpback whales live off their fat stores until they migrate north again in the summer. An average humpback whale can travel 25,000 km each year when it migrates between north and south.
Female humpback whales tend to give birth to their young during the winter months, when humpback whales are in warmer, southern waters. The mother feeds her kitten with the milk she produces, but this means that the female is significantly depleted, because in most cases the birth occurs when the population returns from colder, northern waters to the south in the summer, where females often do not have the opportunity to fully eat .
