Flickr reveals longest whale migration
Jeremy Hancemongabay.com
October 14, 2010
The story of the discovery is epic in itself: a Norwegian tourist recently posted a photo of the whale on Flickr that was taken in 2001 off the coast of Madagascar. Scientists identified the same whale from scientific photos taken in Brazil in 1999. Researchers are able to identify individual whales by unique markings on their tail, called a fluke.
Making the discovery even more surprising is the fact that the behavior of switching from one breeding ground (Brazil) to another (Madagascar) is virtually unheard of. Leaving researchers to wonder what propelled this particular whale to travel half-way across the world: one possibility is that she simply got lost.
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