Whale breaks record

A humpback whale has broken the mammalian record for longest migration. She swam at least 9,800 miles, traveling from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in search of a mate. Cosmos Magazine has more:

The female humpback was first photographed among a group of whales at a breeding ground on Abrolhos Bank, off Brazil's southeastern coast, on 7 August 1999.

By sheer chance, it was photographed more than two years later, on 21 September 2001 by a commercial whale-watching tour at a breeding ground near the Ile Sainte Marie off the eastern coast of Madagascar.

Distinctive tail and spots

The whale was identified thanks to the distinctive shape of its tail and a pattern of spots on it.

"It is the longest documented movement by a mammal, about 400 km longer than the longest seasonal migration that has been reported," according to the research, headed by Peter Stevick of the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.