Bowhead whales can live to 200 years old


Bowhead whale

From National Geographic:

Rare Whales Can Live to Nearly 200, Eye Tissue Reveals

John Roach

Scientists have looked into the eyes of rare bowhead whales and learned that some of them can outlive humans by generations—with at least one male pushing 200 years old.

“About 5 percent of the population is over a hundred years old and in some cases 160 to 180 years old,” said Jeffrey Bada, a marine chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

“They are truly aged animals, perhaps the most aged animals on Earth,” he continued.

Bowheads, also known as Greenland right whales, are baleen whales, meaning that instead of teeth they have bonelike plates that they use to strain food from gulps of water.

Century old weapon found in bowhead whale: here.

Southern right whales attacked by kelp gulls: here.