How Long Do Whales Live? Lifespans From Orcas to Bowheads

Whale lifespans at a glance

Lifespans are hard to measure in animals that can outlive the scientists studying them, so most figures are estimates. They refer to wild whales.

Dolphins, which are small toothed whales, generally live shorter lives; common bottlenose dolphins often reach 40–60 years, as explained in How long do dolphins live?

The bowhead whale: over 200 years

The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) spends its whole life in the cold waters of the Arctic. In the 1990s, scientists studied the eyes of bowheads landed by Alaska Native subsistence hunters. Proteins in the lens of the eye form before birth and are never replaced, and one of their building blocks, aspartic acid, slowly changes its chemical form at a known rate. Measuring that change suggested several whales were between about 135 and 172 years old, and one male was estimated at about 211.

Other evidence backs up these ages. Old stone and ivory harpoon points, of kinds not used since the 1800s, have been found in bowheads landed in recent decades. In 2007, a whale caught off Alaska carried a fragment of an exploding harpoon made between about 1879 and 1885. Bowheads grow slowly, may not breed until they are around 15–25 years old, and have genes linked to DNA repair and cancer resistance that may help explain their long lives. See how they compare with other animals in our list of the longest-living animals.

How do scientists tell a whale’s age?

There is no single method that works for every whale. Researchers use several:

• Earplugs. Baleen whales build up a waxy plug in each ear canal that adds a light and a dark layer every year, like tree rings. Counting the layers in plugs from dead whales gave many of the age estimates for blue whales, fin whales and humpbacks.
• Teeth. Toothed whales such as sperm whales and belugas lay down growth layers in their teeth, which can be counted in thin slices.
• Eye lenses. The slow chemical change in lens proteins, used for bowheads, also works for some other species.
• Known individuals. Since the 1970s, researchers have photographed orcas, right whales and humpback whales and recognized the same animals year after year, so some ages are known directly.
• DNA marks. Small chemical tags on DNA, called methylation, build up with age. Since 2014, scientists have used skin samples from living whales to estimate their ages this way.

Orcas: long-lived grandmothers

Orcas show a striking difference between the sexes. In the wild, females live about 50 years on average and can reach at least 80–90, while males average about 30 years and rarely live past 50–60. Most of what is known comes from orca families in the North Pacific that have been photographed every year since the 1970s.

Female orcas stop having calves at around 40 and may live for decades more. Only a few mammals do this, including humans, short-finned pilot whales, belugas, narwhals and false killer whales. Older females lead their families to food, especially in years when salmon is scarce, and their presence improves the survival of their sons and grandchildren. More about these whales is in our orca profile.

Right whales: 130 years, or 22

A study published in December 2024 used four decades of photographs of individually known right whales to build survival curves. It concluded that some southern right whales, a species that has recovered well from whaling, probably live longer than 130 years, possibly reaching 150. Earlier estimates had put their lifespan at around 70–80 years.

The same study found a very different picture for the North Atlantic right whale, one of the most endangered whales. These whales now live about 22 years on average, and very few survive past 50. The cause is not biology but people: most deaths come from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The study also suggested that whaling removed the oldest animals long ago, so the true lifespans of other large whales may be longer than once thought.

What shortens a whale’s life?

Most whales never reach their potential lifespan. Calves are the most vulnerable, especially to orcas, and young whales can starve if their mothers cannot find enough food. Disease and parasites take others.

Today, human activities are a major cause of early death for many populations:

• Ship strikes kill large whales on busy coasts and shipping lanes.
• Entanglement in fishing ropes and nets can drown whales or slowly exhaust them.
• Pollution builds up in the blubber of long-lived whales, especially orcas that feed at the top of the food chain.
• Noise from ships, sonar and seismic surveys can disturb feeding and communication.
• Changing oceans can shift or reduce the krill and fish whales depend on.

Commercial whaling once removed millions of whales, including most of the oldest individuals. Its end in the 20th century means many whale populations are only now rebuilding their full age range.