Southern right whales have a life expectancy well beyond 100 years, and 10% could live to be over 130 years old, in accordance with our latest published research within the journal Science Advances. Some of those whales can live as much as 150 years. This life expectancy is nearly double the 70-80 years that is generally assumed.
North Atlantic right whales They were also believed to have a maximum lifespan of about 70 years. However, we’ve got found this to be the case threatened with extinction The average life expectancy of those species is currently only 22 years and so they rarely live past 50 years.
These two species are very closely related – they were considered one species just 25 years ago – so we will assume that they’ve similar lifespans. We attribute the stark difference in life expectancy of North Atlantic right whales to human-caused mortality, primarily because of entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes.

Greg Breed
We made these latest age estimates using photo identification of individual female whales over several many years. Individual whales may be identified from photos yr after yr. When they die, they aren’t any longer photographically “seen again” and disappear. From these photos, we developed what scientists call “survival curves” by estimating the likelihood that whales would disappear from the photographic record as they age. From these survival curves we could estimate the utmost potential lifespan.
Twenty-five years ago, scientists working with local whale hunters within the Arctic showed that bowhead whales could meet these demands even over 200 years. Their evidence included the invention of stone harpoon points, which had not been used because the mid-Nineteenth century, embedded within the blubber of whales recently killed by traditional whalers. Analysis of proteins from the eyes of hunted whales provided further evidence of their long lifespans. Like right whales, before this evaluation, researchers assumed that bowhead whales lived to about 80 years and that humans were the longest-living mammals.
In the years following that report, scientists tried to determine what was special about bowhead whales that allowed them to live such long lives. However, our latest evaluation of the life expectancy of two close relatives of the bowhead whale shows that other whale species can also have extremely long lifespans.
Why it matters
Understanding how long wild animals live has big implications for the way best to guard them. Animals which have a really long lifespan normally reproduce extremely slowly and there may be a few years between births. The life history of baleen whales – particularly the age at which females begin breeding and the spacing between calves – is strongly influenced by their potential lifespan. Conservation and management strategies that don’t plan accordingly have the next risk of failure. This is especially vital given the expected impacts of climate change.
What shouldn’t be yet known
There are many other large whales including blue, fin, sei, humpback, gray and sperm whales. Like bowhead and right whales, this was also the case almost worn out by whaling. Scientists currently assume that they’ll live to be around 80 or 90 years old. However, that's exactly what we believed with bowhead and right whales until data showed they may live for much longer.
How long can these other whale species live? Industrial whaling, which only led to the Sixties, eliminated ancient whales from the world's whale populations. Although many whale populations are recovering, whales born after the tip of commercial whaling do not need enough time to become older.
It is feasible, even likely, that many other species of whales even have long lifespans.

Maxi Jonas/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
What other research is being conducted?
Other studies find this Elderly loss from populations is a phenomenon that happens in most large animal species. It reduces the reproductive potential of many species. Researchers also argue that this represents an actual lack of culture and wisdom in animals, affecting their potential for survival within the face of fixing conditions.
What's next?
We want to raised understand how whaling has affected the variety of old individuals in current whale populations and predict when the variety of old individuals will return to pre-whaling levels. Preliminary results suggest that it could take one other 100 years for whale populations to actually recuperate, even for species whose populations are the identical today as they were before whaling.
When it involves North Atlantic right whales, our research shows that at the same time as the population increases, management measures taken will not be enough to forestall these whales from dying far too young.
image credit : theconversation.com
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