An ambitious humpback whale is making waves in the marine biology community after researchers discovered he undertook an incredible 8,106-mile swim across the globe, likely to be the longest distance traveled for the species on record.

A male humpback has completed the longest recorded migration for a whale from South America to Africa. Scientists explain why this journey is so unusual.

While humpback whales conduct some of the longest migrations of any animal in the world, this particular whale’s trip is nevertheless surprising. Humpback whales tend to follow the same longitudinal (north-south) migration patterns, usually visiting the same cold feeding grounds and warm breeding grounds, according to the study.

Proper intake of food is essential for pregnant humpback whales to pull off the extreme physical feat of annual migration between Hawaiʻi and Alaska. Researchers at the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) revealed the energetic cost and vulnerabilities of migratory humpback mothers-to-be in a study published in The Journal of Physiology.

Humpbacks usually migrate north to south or south to north. But one enterprising whale journeyed halfway around the world from South America to Africa. Why?