There have been just six verified sightings of the pygmy blue whale off Sydney in 18 years. Rare sightings like these are crucial, because the giants are considered ‘data deficient’.
Bubble-net feeding is when whales blow bubbles from their nose to encircle their food, trapping their prey into a tight ball. A citizen scientist was the first to capture this behaviour in Australia.
Vera Weisbecker, Flinders University and Jeroen Smaers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Some animals, such as California sea lions, have small brains relative to their body size, but are still impressively intelligent, showing brain evolution is even more complex than it appears.
The cetacean brain has a specialised thermogenic system that helps the animal’s brain to produce enough heat to maintain a functional brain temperature.
Australia is considering removing humpback whales from the threatened species list after their numbers rebounded in recent decades. But the mammals face new threats.
By measuring how and when elephant seals sleep, researchers were able to figure out how elephant seals change their risk-taking behavior as they gain weight.
The strange appearance of three humpback whales in a Kakadu river threw up many questions – including whether they’d come out on top in a fight with a crocodile.
Whale breaches and tail slaps look great from a distance. But they can pose a threat if you want to get up close and swim with these giants of the ocean.
Wild dolphins are fast, smart and hard to study, but it is important to understand how human actions affect their health. So we are building a drone to sample hormones from the blowholes of dolphins.
Some species, including blue whales, spend little time at the surface. So despite their overwhelming size, they can be hard to find and tough to study.
Icelandic whalers have killed more than 1,700 whales since a global ban was adopted in 1986 – up to 2019, when no hunts took place. Is Iceland quietly getting out of the business?