Meet the Bryde whale, a type of baleen whale that's part of the rorqual group, which also includes blue whales and humpback whales.
How big are Bryde whales?
Males grow to 15m long while females are slightly longer at 16.5m.
What do they look like?
Where do Bryde whales live?
What do Bryde whales eat?
A Bryde’s whale has 285–350 baleen plates on each side of its mouth. These in turn are covered with bristles. Like human fingernails, the baleen grows continuously.
How do they reproduce?
Reaches maturity when 11–12m long, at about 7 years old. Females give birth at 2-year intervals, after a gestation of 11–12 months. May breed all year, but in temperate waters reproduction could be linked to a seasonal migration to warmer areas.
Why are they rarely seen or recorded?
Bryde’s whales rarely engage in aerobatics like the breaching and fin-slapping displays that endear humpbacks to boatloads of tourists. They do not perform sustained, bewitching songs either (though they do make powerful low-frequency calls). In addition, they are highly nomadic, appearing in an area unannounced when there is an abundance of food near the surface, then disappearing again as fast as the resource is depleted.
Main image: Bryde’s whale hunting © Getty Images