Learn all about how whales are born, how they mate, how they reproduce, how long they take to gestate and much more that you won't want to miss.
How do whales reproduce?
Whales are animals that never cease to amaze anyone who has the opportunity to see them in their habitat, their size and imposing astonishes everyone, generating various curiosities such as the way in which these mammals reproduce.
These can be obtained in the oceans and seas, places where the depths are many kilometers, due to their large size, the whales carry their young within themselves for the period that the development of the embryo lasts, a of the most striking characteristics of these animals that could be compared with the Shark Characteristics.
There are different types of whales, and in many of them it is quite difficult to always keep track of them to determine various elements of everything that has to do with their reproduction, so there are unknown data about their biology.
One of the data that until now remains without being acquired is how blue whales reproduce.
While in the case of other types of whales this aspect is known, as will be seen throughout this article, from the time they mate until the calves are born.
The reproduction of the whales
As mentioned in the previous segment, these animals fall within the classification of mammals, even among the largest currently known, it stands out from these mammals that reach their adult stage and with it sexual maturity once they reach their seven years of age, but there are some who do not acquire it until they are ten years old, this in terms of males.
But in the case of females, they reach it a few years earlier than males, since many of them are adults from their five years of age and some at seven at most.
The genital gland of females is inside, while in the case of males it is often outside. However, when they are swimming they internalize it, that is, most of the time it remains in a special cavity for this.
Another fact regarding their reproduction is that it does not occur at any time of the year, this will be highly dependent on the hemisphere in which they live.
Courtship
The most common thing is that these animals remain very calm in nature, but this is not the case during mating, in which the males compete with each other to be able to court the females.
This often creates quite a bit of tension within the whales during the mating season.
There is a high probability that there will be fights between the males, as a form of right for the females.
However, it should be noted that the vast majority of the time neither causes real damage to the other, a death from this cause is usually very rare, but they have occurred.
Through these fights what they try to demonstrate is strength, the one who wins this fight will be the one who has the joy of mating with the female for whom they fought.
In the case of the females, they tend to be very receptive during this period, they receive with great charm the songs that the males make and their calls, but not only this, but the males make certain touches and they like them.
But when this period ends, each one takes different paths.
whales mating
Some of the whales live in families, in which the youngest males at certain times leave, with the intention of meeting other whales, other families, so that there is less mating between whales of the same family.
But not in all whales it happens this way since many of them live in groups where all their characteristics and classes are the same, and females and males come together only for mating.
The mating season is usually a moment of great tension between each of the groups, since this is the time they will have to maintain themselves as a species, therefore they all want to reproduce.
There are even cases where the females are exchanged between the males, especially when one of them decides to leave on their own.
The mating of the whales happens through both swimming together in a calm way where touches and frictions are produced, they make sounds over and over again.
Another characteristic in this sense is that they can have several partners at the same time.
Whale gestation time
This can vary from one species to another, but the most common is that the pregnancy lasts a little more than twelve months.
It can be mentioned in this sense that the species called "southern right whales", when the female does not have as much strength or size, her pregnancy lasts much longer than normal, that is, the larger and stronger, her pregnancy lasts less. weather.
Some precise examples of the pregnancy of some whales that last between 9 months and sixteen are the following:
- Humpback Whale, her pregnancy lasts eleven months, scientifically it is called Megaptera novaeangliae.
- The southern whale is called Balaenoptera bonaerensis among scientists and its pregnancy lasts approximately one year and two months.
- White whale, scientifically this is called Delphinapterus leucas and has a pregnancy time of approximately one year and two months, the same as the one mentioned above.
- Greenland whale, for this second case it is called Balaena mysticetus among specialists, and its gestation time is one year.
- The blue whale, the largest mammal recorded in the world, has a pregnancy time of ten months to a maximum of one year.
- La Gray whale, also called Eschrichtius robustus, has a time of whale gestation one year or thirteen months.
How are whales born?
Its fertilization occurs internally, it is important to mention that the most common is that a single calf is born.
It is also noted that whales migrate to warm waters to give birth to their young, the reason for this is that these young do not have much fat at birth, which gives them little protection if they are in very cold water like those in the oceans.
These calves feed on the mother's milk during their first months, through which they gradually obtain fat in addition to other types of nutrients. Once five months have elapsed, they no longer feed on the mother for the most part.
Toothed whales spend more years with their mothers than baleen whales, which become independent much faster.
