Female bowheads are perhaps the most flirtatious ocean mammal, and constantly tease the males into a frenzy.

Subspecies
None.

Life span
Bowhead whales are believed to be the longest-lived animals on Earth. They are thought to live for over 100 years - and one individual was estimated to be 211 years old - according to a 2000 report in the New Scientist. Scientists' suspicions on their long life-span were raised when harpoon heads, dating back to the 1800s, were increasingly found in whales killed by Inupiat whalers.

Statistics
Bowhead whales can reach 18m in length and can weigh over 100 tonnes. The head makes up nearly a third of the length.

Physical description
Bowhead whales are black to grey above and white on their undersides. They lack a dorsal fin but have two distinct dorsal humps. Bowhead whales have very long baleen plates that are contained in hugely bowed jaws, hence their name.

Distribution
They are exclusively an Arctic species. Bowhead whales are reduced to a population of about 7,500 inhabiting Beringia and 500 in the eastern Canadian Arctic and the sea of Okhotsk.

Diet
Bowhead whales mainly feed in the summer on krill. In the winter, they fast and live off their body's reserve of blubber.

Behaviour
Bowhead whales live in groups of 1-6. They are also found in the company of narwhals and belugas.

Reproduction
Although spring is the mating season, they engage in constant sex play, with the females slapping their flippers to get the male excited and then racing off with the males in pursuit.

Conservation status
The Baffin Bay, Davis Strait stock and Okhotsk sea subpopulation are classified as Endangered by the 2000 IUCN Red List. The Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas subpopulation is listed as Lower Risk/Conservation Dependent. The Hudson Bay, Foxe Basin stock as classed as Vulnerable, and the Svalbard-Barents Sea stock are considered to be Critically Endangered. Bowheads have been hunted to near extinction.

Notes
Little is known about the bowhead whale, due to its rarity and remoteness.