Greg Breed

Friday morning in Fairbanks, AK

Right whales can live to 130, but in North America they die young Groundbreaking research in the late 1990s showed that Arctic-dwelling bowhead whales could live more than 150 or even 200 years — longer than any other mammal. New research, inspired by that work, ind...

Yet another great article on our recent paper on #rightwhale #longevity
By Edward Carver @mongabay.bsky.social

Killer ending quote from @alaskaraven.bsky.social
“In the marine mammal community, nobody thinks they’re going to survive”
Well said Greg!
🐳🌍🦑

A lot of how I started thinking about this project came from thinking about terrestrial ungulate life histories and how they compare with marine ungulate (aka whales) life histories.

How long can North Atlantic right whales live? Scientists may finally have an answer The endangered right whales' median age at death is about 22. Southern right whales, a closely related species, generally live into their seventies. The difference? Southern whales aren’t facing entan...

Good article by @evezuckoff.bsky.social for @wcai-npr.bsky.social on our paper about right whales' longevity, and the problems facing North Atlantic #rightwhales

@alaskaraven.bsky.social interviewed. Also commentary from Scott Kraus, who's not here.
Well done
🐳🌍🦑

Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales Whale life spans have likely been greatly underestimated.

New paper alert
Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales
by @alaskaraven.bsky.social , Els Vermeulen, and me.

2 messages:
♀Southern rights could live much longer than we thought (10% >130);
♀North Atlantic rights' lives are truncated (10%>47)
🐳🌍🦑

Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimates These marine mammals are still feeling the effects of whaling. For most species, it may be another 100 years before there are enough old whales for scientists to confirm their lifespans.

And, a piece in The Conversation on the recent paper:

Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimates

"It’s possible, even likely, that many other whale species will also prove to have long lifespans."
🐳🌍🦑
1/