Habitat use by North Pacific right whales, Eubalaena japonica, in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska
The small population of North Pacific right whales, found during the summer in Alaska waters, is one of the most critically endangered whale populations in the world. Commercial whaling in the 1800s has now left us with only a few dozens. Recently these whales have been recognized as a different species from right whales seen in the North Atlantic and others in the Southern Hemisphere. To...Warbling whales speak a language all their own
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours. Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published onl...Research tracks whales by listening to sounds
Researchers have developed a new tool to help them study endangered whales ?autonomous hydrophones that can be deployed in the ocean to record the unique clicks, pulses and calls of different whale species. "There has been only...Underwater listening devices yield discoveries about endangered large whales
Why whales emit their characteristic calls remains largely a biological mystery, but listening for the distinctive underwater sounds provides a valuable way to track the movements of endangered large whales. Autonomous data-recording devices equipped with hydrophones (underwater microphones), deployed in remote waters off Alaska, have been used in recent years to track seasonal occurrences of bl...Penguins Altered Diet When Humans Began Hunting Whales and Seals
Adlie penguins living in Antarctica switched from eating fish to krill (shrimp-like marine invertebrate animals) around the time that humans began hunting seals and whales, ancient eggshell fragments reveal. According to Steven Emslie of the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, and William Patterson of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, it suggests that when human...