Buckelwal vs Common seabird tick

Megaptera novaeangliae compared with Ixodes uriae

Key Differences

Buckelwal is Vulnerable while Common seabird tick is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Buckelwal	Common seabird tick
Kingdom same	Animalia (حيوانات)	Animalia (حيوانات)
Phylum	Chordata (حبليات)	Arthropoda (مفصليات الأرجل)
Class	Mammalia (ثدييات)	Arachnida (عنكبيات)
Order	Cetacea (Whales & Dolphins)	Ixodida (لبوديات الشكل)
Family	Balaenopteridae (Rorquals)	Ixodidae
Genus	Megaptera (Humpback Whales)	Ixodes
Species	Megaptera novaeangliae	Ixodes uriae

Evolutionary Relationship

Buckelwal and Common seabird tick share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (حيوانات)

استعراض Kingdom: Animalia

Conservation Status

Buckelwal

VU — Vulnerable

Population: ~80.0K

Trend: Increasing ↑

Common seabird tick

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Buckelwal	Common seabird tick
Diet	Carnivore	—
Average Lifespan	50 years	—
Average Length	15.0 m	—
Average Weight	30.0 t	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Buckelwal

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, among 11 distinct biome types. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (5 countries), and South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela). Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Common seabird tick

Habitat

Typically found in terrestrial habitats from forests to deserts.

Range

Distributed across Norway and Sweden.

Buckelwal

Among the most acrobatic of the great whales, humpback whales are renowned for their complex, haunting songs sung by males during breeding season — some lasting hours and evolving over time. Reaching 16 meters and 30 tonnes, they undertake the longest migrations of any mammal. Found in all oceans, humpbacks feed on krill and small fish using cooperative bubble-net feeding. Populations have largely recovered from historic whaling.

Common seabird tick

<em>Ixodes uriae</em>, the common seabird tick, is a hard tick in the family Ixodidae, order Ixodida, distributed across subarctic and subantarctic regions with records from Norway and Sweden. This species is an obligate ectoparasite that specializes in feeding on colonial seabirds, including auks, penguins, and petrels, making it one of the few tick species with a genuinely circumpolar distribution tied to its avian hosts. <em>Ixodes uriae</em> typically infests birds in their nesting colonies, where dense aggregations and repeated site fidelity by hosts facilitate transmission. Beyond its direct parasitic impact, this tick serves as a vector for various pathogens, including Borrelia spirochetes and tick-borne encephalitis-related viruses, making it of scientific interest for disease ecology in seabird populations. The species has not been formally evaluated by the IUCN, and its conservation status remains Not Evaluated. Biological traits for this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature, including comprehensive data on average lifespan under natural conditions, body dimensions across life stages, weight, and the full range of its host and pathogen associations.