#0104 · 🦊 mammals
Grey Whale
🇳🇱 Grijze Walvis ·Eschrichtius robustus
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © aidanm23 · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Ricardo · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Andrea Carpio · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Mo Singh · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Andrea Carpio · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Robin Gwen Agarwal · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Sergio Martínez · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © Sergio Martínez · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Joe McKenna · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- 10. © David Merrett · CC BY 4.0
what is it?
The gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ), also known as the grey whale , gray back whale , Pacific gray whale , or California gray whale is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. 9 meters (49 ft), a weight of 36 tonnes (40 short tons), and lives between 55 and 70 years. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 5,595 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Wilhelm Lilljeborg in 1861 (165 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Grey Whale
- Nederlands
- Grijze Walvis
- scientific name
- Eschrichtius robustus
- class
- Mammalia
- order
- Artiodactyla
- family
- Eschrichtiidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 8
- sightings worldwide
- 5,595
- GBIF records in NL
- 38
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1861 by Wilhelm Lilljeborg
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 41478, Wikidata Q179154, GBIF 2440704, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.