Gray whale

It has 1 young per litter after a gestation period of 379.9 days, with 0.5 litters per year, and reaches sexual maturity at 8 years. Its lifespan is listed as 77 years, and the IUCN Red List assesses it globally as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.

Weight

27.3 t – 28.5 tsrc for Weight

Length

15.1 msrc for Length

Lifespan

77 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Invertivoresrc for Diet

Main food

marine benthossrc for Main food

Habitat

Not recorded

Gestation

365 days – 380 dayssrc for Gestation

Young per litter or clutch

1src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

8 yearssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

0.5src for Litters or clutches a year

Active

By day (diurnal)src for Active

Lifestyle

Marinesrc for Lifestyle

Migration

Migratorysrc for Migration

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The gray whale is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classMammalia
4. orderCetacea
5. familyEschrichtiidae
6. genusEschrichtius
7. SpeciesEschrichtius robustus (Lilljeborg, 1861)

Synonyms Agaphelus glaucus, Balaena boops, Balaena gibbosa, Balaenoptera robusta, Eschrichtius gibbosus, Eschrichtius gibbosus, Eschrichtius gibbosus, Eschrichtius glaucus, Eschrichtius glaucus, Rhachianectes glaucus, Rhachianectes glaucus

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

CompareGray whale vs Akishima whale

• 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).

@misc{gray_whale_2026,
  title = {Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/gray-whale},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}