But don't forget to include whales on the list. Humpback whales winter in the warm waters of the Caribbean where they mate and give birth. Like other mammals, whales give live birth to their young. For baleen whales, the gestation period lasts from ten to thirteen months. A single calf is born underwater, and it either swims to the surface itself or is nudged upward by its mother.
Newborn whales are already about one-quarter their mothers length.
They drink their mothers' rich, protein laden milk, building up thick layers of blubber that insulate them from the cold northern waters. Friday For ages, humans hunted the whale for meat, oil, and other products. With faster boats and the invention of the harpoon gun, even the bigger, faster baleen species like the great blue whale became vulnerable. By the beginning of the 20th century, the once common gray whale was nearly extinct and the northern right and the bowhead whales were depleted to levels from which they have never fully recovered. Today, there are only about 300 right whales left in the north Atlantic.