Bowhead whale
Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758
LCLeast Concernwhales and dolphins
The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) is a marine mammal in the family Balaenidae, order Cetacea and suborder Mysticeti, part of the whales and dolphins group. It is a giant animal with an adult body mass of 100 tonnes, and the lowest value reported by our sources is 80 tonnes.
Quick facts about the bowhead whale
An invertivore with a carnivore trophic level, it feeds on zooplankton and is cathemeral in its activity pattern. The species is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category, and it has a lifespan of 40 years.
- Weight
- 80 t – 100 tsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 40 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- zooplanktonsrc for Main food
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 304 days – 380 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 17.5 years – 22.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.3src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Marinesrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the bowhead whale
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the bowhead whale live?
Not recorded
What is the bowhead whale?
The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), sometimes known as the Greenland right whale, Arctic whale, and polar whale, is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus Balaena. It is the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, and is named after its characteristic massive triangular skull, which it uses to break through Arctic ice.
Bowheads have the largest mouth of any animal, representing almost one-third of the length of the body. They also have the longest baleen plates among whales, with a maximum length of 2.97 to 5.2 metres (9.7 to 17.1 ft). They may be the longest-lived of all mammals, with the ability to reach an age of more than 200 years.
The bowhead was an early whaling target. Their population was severely reduced before a 1966 moratorium was passed to protect the species. Of the five stocks of bowhead populations, three are listed as endangered, one as vulnerable, and one as lower risk, conservation dependent according to the IUCN Red List. The global population is assessed as of least concern.
From the Wikipedia article “Bowhead whale” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bowhead_whale&oldid=1377277650), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the bowhead whale endangered?
The bowhead whale is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the bowhead whale classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCetacea
- familyBalaenidae
- genusBalaena
- SpeciesBalaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Balaena mysticetus arctica, Balaena mysticetus borealis, Balaena mysticetus groenlandica, Balaena mysticetus pitlekajensis, Balaena mysticetus roysii, Baloena mysticetus
Other names and names in other languages (124)
- Arctic right whaleEnglish
- Arctic right whaleEnglish
- Baleine a tete d'arcEnglish
- Black right whaleEnglish
- BowheadEnglish
- BowheadEnglish
- Bunch-back whaleEnglish
- Great polar whaleEnglish
- Greenland right whaleEnglish
- Greenland right whaleEnglish
- Greenland whaleEnglish
- Whale-fishEnglish
- Whalebone whaleEnglish
- kulemaAleut
- kuliamilakAleut
- ugamachcachAleut
- حوت مقوس الرأسArabic
- Qrenlandiya balinasıAzerbaijani
- Грэнландскі кітBelarusian
- Гренландски китBulgarian
- Grenlаndski kitBulgarian
- Balum reizh GreunlandBreton
- Balena de GrenlàndiaCatalan
- ittivckt
- velryba grónskáCzech
- rethvalDanish
- bartfischDanish
- grönlandshvalDanish
- sandhvalDanish
- schlichtebackDanish
- NordwalGerman
- BogenkopfGerman
- GrönlandswalGerman
- GrönlandwalGerman
- PolarwalGerman
- WalfischGerman
- ΤοξοφάλαιναGreek
- Φάλαινα της ΑρκτικήςGreek
- Gronlanda balenoEsperanto
- ballena borealSpanish
- ballena de cabeza arqueadaSpanish
- ballena de GroenlandiaSpanish
- Grööni vaalEstonian
- Groenlandiar baleaBasque
- kalliumevn
- نهنگ قطبیPersian
- grönlanninvalasFinnish
- GrønlandsslættibøkaFaroese
- baleineFrench
- baleine boréaleFrench
- baleine de grande baieFrench
- baleine du GroenlandFrench
- baleine francheFrench
- baleine franche boréaleFrench
- Balea de GrenlandiaGalician
- balea da GroenlandiaGalician
- לווייתן קשות ראשHebrew
- בלנה גרינלנדיתHebrew
- Grönlandi bálnaHungarian
- Paus kepala busurIndonesian
- ArviqInuktitut
- AġvikInupiaq
- AġviqInupiaq
- nordvalurIcelandic
- Grænland hvalurIcelandic
- GrænlandshvalurIcelandic
- GrænlandssléttbakurIcelandic
- gröenlandshvalurIcelandic
- NorðhvalurIcelandic
- sletbacurIcelandic
- vatushalarIcelandic
- balena articaItalian
- balena della GroenlandiaItalian
- serbioJapanese
- ホッキョククジラJapanese
- hokkyoku kujiraJapanese
- გრენლანდიური ვეშაპიGeorgian
- akbekKalaallisut
- arbavirsoakKalaallisut
- arbekKalaallisut
- ArfiviitKalaallisut
- ArfivikKalaallisut
- sokalikKalaallisut
- 북극고래Korean
- Grenlandinis banginisLithuanian
- walziusLatvian
- grønlandshvalNorwegian Bokmål
- IJswalvisDutch
- Groenlandse walvisDutch
- grønlandskvalNorwegian Nynorsk
- finqvalNorwegian
- gronlandshvalNorwegian
- gronlandskhvalNorwegian
- sietbackNorwegian
- sletbagNorwegian
- sletbakNorwegian
- Wal grenlandzkiPolish
- wieloryb grenlandzkiPolish
- وڈے منہ والی وہیلWestern Panjabi
- baleia da GronelândiaPortuguese
- Baleia-da-groenlândiaPortuguese
- гренландскийRussian
- гренландский китRussian
- или полярный китRussian
- greenlandskiy kitRussian
- poliarskyi kitRussian
- kakhlimYakut
- Veľryba grónskaSlovak
- Grenlandski kitSlovenian
- Balena e GroenlandësAlbanian
- rättvalSwedish
- grönlandsvalSwedish
- hvalfiskSwedish
- วาฬหัวคันศรThai
- Gronland balinasıTurkish
- Grönland balinasıTurkish
- полярний китUkrainian
- Гренландський китUkrainian
- Кит гренландськийUkrainian
- Кит ґренландськийUkrainian
- Grenlandiya kitiUzbek
- Grenlandijalaine kitVeps
- Cá voi đầu congVietnamese
- 弓頭鯨Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the bowhead whale
Other species in the same genus Balaena.
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How heavy is a bowhead whale?
The bowhead whale has an adult body mass of 100 tonnes. The lowest value reported by our sources is 80 tonnes.
What does the bowhead whale eat?
The bowhead whale eats zooplankton. It is classed as an invertivore with a carnivore trophic level.
Is the bowhead whale endangered?
No. It is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a bowhead whale live?
The bowhead whale has a lifespan of 40 years.
What kind of animal is the bowhead whale?
The bowhead whale is a marine mammal in the whales and dolphins group, belonging to the family Balaenidae in the order Cetacea.
How many young does a bowhead whale have?
The bowhead whale has 1 young per litter, at a rate of 0.3 litters per year, after a gestation period of 379.9 days.
Who named the bowhead whale?
The bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus, was named by Linnaeus, 1758.
What are other names for the bowhead whale?
Other English names are Bowhead, Whale-fish, Whalebone whale, Greenland whale and Bunch-back whale.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/bowhead-whale
“Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/bowhead-whale.
@misc{bowhead_whale_2026,
title = {Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/bowhead-whale},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}