As if giving birth was not hard enough, when you are trying to push a 1.5-tons baby out of your womb, having to deal with hormone-triggered males adds another level of stress to a humpback whale in labor. A new study published this September detailed six previously un-published humpback whale birth events. In most cases, […]
Humpback whale males escort females giving birth, but it can get chaotic Read More »
For humans, pregnancy is generally predictable: boy meets girl, *you know what happens*, an embryo is implanted, and nine months later, a baby is born. In the seal world, things are a bit different. Seal boy meets seal girl, they do their business, but an embryo does not always immediately get implanted. By pausing their
Pregnancy planning 101: lessons from seals’ embryonic diapause Read More »
Enrico Corsi is a 29-year-old Italian marine mammalogist. He is currently doing his PhD in the Marine Conservation Ecology Lab at Florida International University in Miami. Here is his story. A fascination for the living world I was always fascinated by the life sciences as far back as I could remember. I was that 90s
Whale Scientists Story – Enrico Corsi Read More »
What do baleen and sperm whales have to do with climate change? More than you may initially think! Long-lived species help to enhance the predictability of marine environments. This helps to keep the ecosystem stable. However, after an extensive period of whaling, humans have disrupted this natural process. The number of great whales has declined
Whales are the engineers of their ecosystems Read More »
Worn-out teeth, also called tooth wear, are pretty common in cetaceans. Although there are many documented cases of tooth wear in captivity, worn-out teeth exist in wild whales. And especially those who eat a lot of fish, like herring-eating killer whales. In this post, we explain why eating some fish can damage wild killer whale
Some fish-eating orcas have worn out teeth: Here’s why Read More »
As an inevitable part of nature, death happens to all living things. Despite the certainty of it, coping with death is never easy for anyone. And by anyone, I don’t just mean humans… Some animals, including elephants, apes, and cetaceans, react unusually when a group member passes away. Could these animals be capable of experiencing
Good grief! When whales and dolphins mourn the dead Read More »
Twenty-two species of beaked whales live ocean-wide. They inhabit waters from the tropics to the poles. For such a cosmopolitan family, little is known about beaked whales. So, what exactly are beaked whales, and why are they so hard to study? The most mysterious cetaceans Beaked whales belong to the Ziphiidae family. So-named for their
Whales of Mystery: We know so little about beaked whales Read More »
Everybody knows that whales and dolphins have large brains and are quite smart. Indeed, they can catch prey, migrate thousands of kilometers and even interact with other species. In this post, we cover cetacean intelligence, from self-awareness to transmitting culture, and try to answer this question: could these animals be as smart, if not smarter,
What do we know about intelligence in whales and dolphins? Read More »
As a child, you may have come across the book “Everyone Poops.” Well, what about farts? In this article, we will explore the lovely world of whale flatulence and try to answer, “Do Whales Fart?” “Better out than in…” Passing gas or farting can be seen in most mammals, even marine ones! It allows animals
Have you ever asked, “Why do whales jump?” Well, there’s not a precise answer, but we will try to answer it in this post, so keep reading. If you’ve ever played in shallow water, you might have used your feet to push off the bottom and pretend to jump out of the water like a
Don’t flip out: whales jump for more than one porpoise Read More »
