Whale Survives Harpoon Attack 130 Years Ago To Become ‘World’s Oldest Mammal’

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A giant bowhead whale caught off the coast of Alaska had a harpoon point embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt – more than a century ago.

Biologists claim the find helps prove the bowhead is the oldest living mammal on earth.

They say the 13-centimetre arrow-shaped fragment dates back to around 1880, meaning the 50-ton whale had been coasting around the freezing arctic waters since Victorian times.

Because traditional whale hunters never took calves, experts estimate the bowhead was several years old when it was first shot and about 130 when it died last month.

“No other finding has been so precise,” said John Bockstoce, a curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.

Calculating a bowhead whale’s age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses.

It is rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts now believe the oldest were close to 200 years old.

The weapon fragment lodged in a bone between the whale’s neck and shoulder blade comes from a 19th century bomb lance.