Latest Whale Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Since the time of Aristotle, biologists have struggled to understand the reasons for mass strandings of whales and dolphins on beaches. Contrary to previous assumptions that whales follow each other onto the beach – and almost certain death – on account of familial ties, a new study from Oregon State University and the University of Auckland reveals that many unrelated individuals are present at each event. The findings of this...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Whether they hunt for food by opening their mouths while diving deep into the ocean or skimming along its surface, many whale species rely on their baleen teeth to filter tasty morsels from the mouthfuls of seawater they take in. According to Alexander Werth, a biology professor from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, no one has ever looked into the mechanism behind how the hairy substance actually traps food. “The standard view...
San Diego Infographic Whale Watching and Migration by Marriott (PRWEB) March 11, 2013 The warm waters of the Pacific Ocean along southern California’s coastline are a popular shared destination as vacationers from around the world make their way to enjoy fun in the sun and gray whales from the Arctic Sea migrate there annually to give birth to their young. Beautifully described and illustrated in an exciting new infographic on the tumblr blog by Marriott International, gray whales...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Although whales are mammals, they do not resemble any of the mammals surrounding us on land and have a unique evolutionary history. Whales have a triangular fluke for a tail, and they have no (visible) hind legs or body hair. One of the strangest differences between whales and their terrestrial cousins, however, is in the whale's mouth. Whale teeth are simpler and more "peg like" than those of other mammals. A new study led by Dr....
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Fossil discoveries are nothing new. And finding new species is just as common. But when you find a fossil of an animal new to science, things start to get more interesting—especially when that discovery includes not one, but four new species from the same genus. This is exactly what occurred in the Laguna Canyon outcrop, a fossil bed unearthed during a highway construction project in California in 2000. The site, which was...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online For over 50 years, conservationists have been championing the protection of humpback whales—and as the population begins to recover from decades of whaling, scientists are starting to ask about the size of the whale population before they were hunted en masse. Using a refined genetic analysis, a group of American scientists has estimated the humpback’s historical population size at more than 100,000 whales, according to their...
TOKYO, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Japan's dying whaling industry is being propped up by millions of dollars a year in public money, new research by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) reveals. In a report published today, The Economics of Japanese Whaling, IFAW shows how the Japanese government even diverted tsunami relief funds to support whaling. Annual government subsidies for Japanese whaling average around 782 million yen (US $9.78m), but in 2011 this...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Normally, stumbling across a pile of vomit while taking a stroll along the beach isn’t exactly a good thing, but in the case of one UK man, it could pay off big time. The substance in question – a lump of a rare substance known as ambergris, which has a waxy texture and is yellow in color – is produced in the digestive systems of sperm whales and is an ingredient used in some perfumes. According to Ben Jackson,...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Despite their size, sperm whales have proven themselves to be nothing to fear, as reports come in about a group adopting a handicapped dolphin into their community. Scientists found a group of sperm whales near the Azores Islands, about 900 miles off the coast of Portugal, and an unlikely companion by their side: a dolphin with a spinal deformation. Science Magazine reported two behavioral ecologists from the Leibniz Institute of...
[Watch Video: Killer Whales Trapped In Sea Ice In Northern Canada] Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A pod of killer whales that was trapped by ice in northern Canada appears to have made their escape, according to a report from CBC News. After spotting the trapped whales in the freezing waters of Hudson Bay on Wednesday, concerned residents called for the government's help to free the whales. Federal officials announced they were planning to send a team of...
Latest Whale Reference Libraries
Image Caption: Fossil of Feresa Attenuata, Shimonoseki Marine Science Museum KAIKYOUKAN, Japan. Credit: OpenCage/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.5) The pygmy killer whale is widely distributed in tropical and sub-tropical waters worldwide. Regular sightings of this species occur off the coast of Hawaii and Japan, and also in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka and Lesser Antilles. In the Atlantic the pygmy killer whale has been seen off the coast of South Carolina and Senegal. This species swims in...
The Beluga Whale or White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas), is an Arctic and sub-arctic species of marine mammal. It is commonly referred to simply as the Beluga. The Beluga occurs in waters from 50° N to 80° N. There is also an isolated population which travels the St. Lawrence River estuary and the Saguenay Fjord. There is an endangered colony of Belugas in the Cook Inlet in Alaska as well. This small whale can grow up to 16 feet long and is larger than most dolphins, but smaller...
Sowerby's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon bidens), also known as the North Atlantic/North Sea Beaked Whale, was the first beaked whale to be described. Its name, bidens, derives from the two teeth present in the jaw, now known to be a very common feature among the family. It is altogether a rather typical representative of the genus. Physical description Sowerby's Beaked Whale has a typical body shape for the genus, and is mainly distinguished by the male's dual teeth that are found very far...
The Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps) is one of three species of whale in the sperm whale family. They are not often sighted at sea and most of our understanding of the creatures comes from the study of washed-up specimens Taxonomy There has been debate and differing opinion as to the correct classification of the Pygmy and Dwarf Sperm Whales. The two were widely considered to be the same species, until 1966, when a scientist at the Smithsonian Institute definitively diagnosed them as...
The Orca or Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) is the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family Delphinidae. They are sometimes referred to as blackfish, a group including pilot whales, pigmy and false killer whales and melon headed whales. It is the second-most widely distributed mammal on Earth (after humans) and is found in all the world's oceans, from the frigid arctic regions to warm, tropical seas. It is also a versatile, deadly predator, eating fish, turtles, birds, seals, sharks and even...
