When they followed vultures into the rainforest on Marajó Island in Brazil, near the mouth of the Amazon River officials with the state health, sanitation and environment department made a surprising discovery. The birds were feeding on the carcass of a 10-ton, 26-foot-long humpback whale calf. The calf, about a year old, was in an […]
Tag: Humpback Whale
Rare Footage Captures a Baby Humpback Whale Moments After Birth
A researcher studying humpback whales off the coast of Maui was treated to a rare surprise after spotting a newborn humpback whale who was barely moments old. It’s the closest Lars Bejder has been to a live birth of a humpback whale in 25 years, and lucky for us he captured it on footage. Bejder, […]
Whale stress levels influenced by human activity, earwax study suggests
Scientists have mapped whale stress levels in relation to human activity going back nearly a century and a half — using earwax collected from baleen whales. From 1870 to 2016, the whales’ stress levels seem to be closely associated with activities such as industrial whaling, naval operations during World War II, and rising sea-surface temperatures, […]
Fisherman Risks His Life to Save a Humpback Whale
As they headed back toward the central California coast after fishing for slime eel in the Pacific Ocean, Sam Synstelien and Nicholas Taron made a troubling discovery: a humpback whale was entangled in a buoy’s rope, frantically trying to free itself. Synstelien immediately called the U.S. Coast Guard but was told it might take a […]
Ocean Noise is So Loud, Humpback Whales Stop Singing
Humpback whales have become well-known for their beautiful songs, but researchers have found that noise coming from ships is enough to make them shorten their songs, or stop singing altogether. While ocean noise has become a growing concern that’s expected to increasingly impact marine life, scientists from Ogasawara Whale Watching Association and Hokkaido University in […]
Trump’s next target? The endangered species that define America
The Trump administration and its conservative allies in Congress have consistently touted their efforts to “free” the American economy by rolling back regulations. The vice-president, Mike Pence, has said that the administration will deregulate so aggressively that we should all “buckle up”. Pence must have forgotten that seatbelts were instituted as a safety regulation that […]
Video: Rescuers help ‘distressed’ 10m humpback whale entangled in nets at Bondi
The whale was found entangled in netting off the Sydney beach on Tuesday afternoon. Passengers on a whale-watching cruise spent several hours trying to help, and succeeded in cutting some of the netting before the operation had to be abandoned at nightfall This article was first published by The Guardian on 29 May 2018. […]
Bowhead whales: jazz artists of the deep whose calls rival birdsong
How do bowhead whales in the unbroken darkness of the Arctic’s polar winter keep busy during breeding season? They sing, of course. From late autumn to early spring, off the east coast of Greenland, some 200 bowheads, hunted to the edge of extinction, serenade each other with compositions from a vast repertoire of song, according […]
