Critically Endangered Gray Whale Breaks Migration Record at 14,000 Miles

Scientists have uncovered the longest migration in the animal kingdom. They've found that a critically endangered species of whale takes a round-trip trek of nearly 14,000 miles by sea.

The species of whale in this case is the western North Pacific gray whale. In order to better understand their movements, the researchers used satellite-monitored tags to track three of these animals across the Pacific Ocean and down the West Coast of the United States to Baja, Mexico. One of the tagged whales, named Varvara, visited the three major breeding areas for eastern gray whales, which are found off North America and are not endangered.

"The fact that endangered western gray whales have such a long range and interact with eastern gray whales was a surprise and leaves a lot of questions up in the air," said Bruce Mate, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "Past studies have indicated genetic differentiation between the species, but this suggests we may need to take a closer look."

Researchers actually thought western gray whales went extinct by the 1970s. However, a small population was discovered in Russia off of Sakhalin Island. There's a current population estimate of about 150 individuals that is continually monitored by researchers.

Eastern gray whales, in contrast, have fared slightly better. While their population numbers also plummeted, conservation efforts led to their recovery and today there are an estimated 18,000 animals.

The new findings, though, show that the western gray whale may be in more trouble than once expected.

"The ability of whales to navigate across open water over tremendously long distances is impressive and suggests that some western gray whales might actually be eastern grays," said Mate. "But that doesn't mean that there may not be some true western gray whales remaining. If so, then the number of true western gray whales is even smaller than we previously thought."

The findings are published in the journal Biology Letters.

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