© Fisheries and Oceans Canada / World Wildlife Fund Canada / VDOS Global LLC / University of British Columbia / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution / Pangnirtung Hunter and Trappers Association and Peter’s Expediting & Outfitting Services
Bowhead whale
Behaviours
Discover more about bowhead whale behaviours – how they communicate with each other, feed and mate in the Arctic Ocean.
Communication: How do bowhead whales communicate?
Bowhead whales are known as the jazz singers of the ocean. They have complex vocal repertoires that include simple songs and diverse calls. Bowheads sing songs in the winter and early spring that can last for several minutes. Their songs can also change over the years.
Bowhead whale songs can be multi-voiced, meaning that bowheads can create simultaneous tones at different frequencies that range between 20 Hz to over 5000Hz.
The songs that bowhead whales sing are likely to play a role in mating.
Listen to a bowhead whale song.
Audio via: © K.M. Stafford, University of Washington (CC)
© WWF / Clive Tesar
Diet: What do bowhead whales eat?
Bowhead whales eat a variety of different prey – more than 100 species of prey have been identified by scientists.
As bulk filter feeders, bowhead whales mostly feed on zooplankton. The other two most common foods are twelve different species of copepods, small crustaceans, and two types of krill species.
However, bowhead whales have also been known to eat fish species, such as Arctic cod, as well as benthic invertebrates, species on the ocean floor, and epibenthic invertebrates, species that live just above the ocean floor.
During summer and fall, feeding is common for bowhead whales. During winter, bowhead whales sometimes feed in the Bering Sea. However, during spring, very limited amounts of feeding take place, as less prey is available.
For the BCB population of bowhead whales, once they reach the Eastern Beaufort Sea in May, they feed extensively throughout the summer.
Mating and reproduction: Bowhead whale life history
Bowhead whales tend to mate in March, but mating activity has been observed from spring all the way to autumn.
Female bowhead whales are then pregnant for 13-14 months before giving birth to a calf that weighs about 1000 kilograms. Calving seems to peak during the mid- to end of May according to scientists studying the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (BCB) population of bowhead whales.
During the first year, calves grow to be 10 to 12 metric tonnes. Calves begin to wean off their mothers milk, some time between six and 12 months, bowhead’s growth slows for about the next four years. During this time, their large head and baleen rack grows more rapidly.
Female bowhead whales reach maturity when they reach 13.4 meters long and are approximately 25 years-old. Males reach maturity when they exceed 12.5 meters in length.
Scientists have discovered that bowhead whales can live to be more than 200 years-old. To make this discovery, scientists have used a method that detects the aging of a whale’s eye lens. The oldest bowhead whales, more than 150 years-old, have been males. But females have also been found to reach 140 years-old.
