| | |  Travel & Outdoors 
Puerto Vallarta Whale Watching Guide Available
 Sue Lyon - RentalsVallarta.com
December 27, 2010
| | North Pacific Humpbacks migrate from their summer feeding grounds, off the coast of Alaska, to warmer oceans of Puerto Vallarta Mexico and other destinations. (photos by Larry Bennett Photography) | |
Puerto Vallarta’s whale watching season runs from December to March of every year. Humpback whales are the top liners of this fantastic nature show, accompanied by dolphins, porpoises and other marine animals.
The Puerto Vallarta Whale Watching Guide shows pictures, sound and video with descriptions of humpback whales’ reproduction, migration, feeding, life cycle and conservation issues to help you better appreciate whale watching in Puerto Vallarta.
Puerto Vallarta’s Humpback Whale Migratory Route
North Pacific Humpbacks migrate from their summer feeding grounds, off the coast of Alaska, to warmer oceans of Puerto Vallarta Mexico and other destinations.
Each of these migration routes is about 6,000 miles round-trip, making it one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom.
Humpback Whale Life Cycle
Female humpbacks reach reproductive age between 5 and 8 years of age and produce a single calf once every 2 to 3 years. After 11 months of gestation, Humpback mothers deliver one big baby measuring about 15-foot in length and weighing 2 tons.
Each mother nurses her baby with about 100 lbs of pink colored milk every day, which has the consistency of honey containing about 50% fat (nothing like your supermarket’s watery 2% milk carton). Humpback whales do not have lips; in order to nurse, baby whales curl their tongue into a “taco” around their mother’s nipple allowing them to generate a sucking vacuum.
By the time the baby reaches Alaska it measures about 25 feet in length and weighs about 10 tons. The mother will stay close to the calf for about one year and will not let her baby stray more than one body-length away from her for any length of time.
A fully grown humpback whale reaches lengths of 35 to 48 feet long, weighs up to 65 tons and lives up to 50 years of age. Females are slightly larger than males. Throughout their lives, Humpback whales may travel 300,000 miles during their annual migrations, enough to achieve platinum status in most frequent flier programs.
Humpback Whale Feeding
Adult humpback whales feed during the winter months in the waters off Alaska and only feed opportunistically in Puerto Vallarta.
In order to feed, humpback whales fill their mouths with large amounts of water, expanding the elastic flaps on the lower jaws and throat. Once they engulfed all the water they can hold, humpbacks close their mouths and squeeze the water out through the specially designed baleen plates swallowing the small shrimp and fish trapped in their mouths.
Humpback Whale Behaviors In Puerto Vallarta
In addition to reproducing, you can observe Humpback Whales in Puerto Vallarta caring for their young, breaching out of the water, slapping their fins to assert their dominance, bobbing with their heads sticking out of the water, and of course, lots of singing.
Responsible Whale Watching
You can make a difference when viewing marine mammals in the wild by becoming familiar with the recommended marine mammal viewing guidelines to reduce the potential to inadvertently harm humpback whales.
For a more detailed description and pictures of these and other behaviors visit our Puerto Vallarta Whale Watching Guide HERE.
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