Wildlife

Humpback Whales Fight to Mate

The amazing recovery in recent years of the humpback whale population is resulting in more aggressive mating behavior among the previously gentler males. Once hunted to near extinction, Australia’s east coast humpback population alone grew from 3,700 in 2007 to 27,000 whales in 2015.

Monitoring by a team from the University of Queensland found that male humpbacks used to sing to woo females but have now increasingly turned to fighting among themselves for the right to breed.