Mammals · Artiodactyla · Balaenidae

Southern Right Whale

Eubalaena australis

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

Every individual carries a unique pattern of callosities — patches of thickened skin colonised by crustaceans — on its head, which work like a fingerprint.

Weight

up to 45 t

Size

up to 18 m

Lifespan

60 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Irregular activity

Active at irregular times, by day or night depending on circumstances.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

Estimated population

More than 15,000 animals, clearly recovering since the end of commercial whaling.

OceanCarnivore Variable activity Solitary Ocean Mammal

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Fun facts

Those patterns let researchers identify particular whales across decades of monitoring.
It feeds on krill and small copepods through plates of baleen.
It follows a typical 3-year breeding cycle of gestation, nursing and rest.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
Habitat & environment: Temperate to cold waters of the Southern Hemisphere, with coastal calving grounds in Argentina, South Africa and Australia
Birth weight: Born after rapid foetal growth in the last trimester of gestation
Size at birth: Born after rapid foetal growth
Sexual maturity: 9 years
Gestation / incubation: 12-13 months
Litter / clutch size: 1 calf per birth, on a typical 3-year cycle of gestation, nursing and rest

Sources consulted: Animal Diversity Web; Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition; Wikipedia (Southern right whale); PMC (fetal growth energetic cost study); ResearchGate (seasonality gestation study)

Where to find it

See its range on the interactive map

Best time: From June to November at Península Valdés (Argentina), Hermanus (South Africa) and southern Australia, when it comes inshore to calve and raise its young.