researchers conduct autopsy on stranded spade beaked whale CC BY-SA 3.0
I wrote about this find (click here to read the original article) as one of just 7 of this species (spade-toothed beaked whale) to have washed ashore, it was too important an opportunity to find out something about this species in the wild.
Whales do eventually sink to the ocean floor, so it is quite difficult to know how many spade toothed whales there are left in the world (as we only encounter those which wash up on shore). They are thought to be very rare, but this is just conjecture. This is because, having been timed, holding breath for 87 minutes (and theorized that they might be able to last more than 2 hours), they would only have to surface perhaps 15 times in a 24 hour period. Furthermore, given their incredibly low profile in the water, they are likely capable of regularly coming to the surface without being particularly visible. It is true that they have been seen blowing spouts (the puff of moisture and air that signals a whales breath), but given their low profile, perhaps they are capable of exhaling in a less obvious way.
This one in question washed ashore in Otago, on South Island of New Zealand.
Killer whale or Orca: highly intelligent, inquisitive, caring of family, no wonder they fascinate us
The Southern resident killer whale population is on the brink of extinction, but it seems, not for the reason that people thought.
Found along the coast of Washington, Oregon, California, and British Columbia, this population is thought to number just 75, but births are rare, and often end in sadness. 2 calves have been born in the last 2 years, but both have died young. This year, the mother was seen carrying her dead infant for some time (draped across her snout).
It is thought that this population is in danger as a result of a collapse in the Chinook salmon which is an essential part of their diet. However, this theory is defeated, when we look at the Northern resident killer whale population, and notice that they appear to have less access to the salmon. There is lots of shipping noise in their home, which may mean that they are incapable of communicating, which would impact their ability to hunt,
It is true that the origins of their decline lie around 120 years ago, when blackfish (orca as they were then called) were both slaughtered and captured for marine parks. The population on stopped falling fast when Canada banned capture. So is this just the straw that broke the camels back?
Why do captive orca have drooping fins?
Drooping dorsal fins are occasionally seen in the wild, so the split is not totally solid, but it is true, that while most captive orca eventually have a drooping dorsal fin, this is a far rarer site in the wild (while not being unheard of).
The fin is supported by a tough protein called callagen, and it has been suggested that with captive orca spending more time at the surface, the higher temperature from the sun may degrade the protein.
Tahlequah has given birth again (famous for carrying her first calf after it died)
Tahlequah carried a former calf for 17 days after it died, and for more than 1000 miles. This means it is rather lovely to see that she has had another calf. However, the calf has already been observed being pushed by the mother and does not look healthy. The mother is very experienced, so it is hoped that she can succeed, but time will tell. This mother is part of the Southern resident population which i mentioned above, which is small and with few births in recent years. It is therefore very concerning to find that 2 related calves died so close together.
A new video shows a mother orca teaching her calves how to hunt
I should say, that the article I read suggested this was the first time that it had been seen, but the below clip is from several years ago. Even so, it is fascinating to see a mother actively teaching her offspring how to hunt/
Orca have been seen, for the first time off Chile, hunting dolphins
As can be seen from the video above, orca are known to hunt and eat dolphins in various places around the world. However, this behaviour has never been seen in this population, so they had to work out how to do it for themselves. While in the past they have been filmed eating sea lions (and using local boats to hide their approach), they have now been filmed hunting dusky dolphins.
The study was looking at the eating habits of orcas in the southern hemisphere, so as to be able to conserve them more effectively. It suggests that Chile Orca are turning to these food-sources. While Orca have been filmed harrasing or even killing porpoises and dolphins, this is the first time that they have been filmed eating them.
Orca facing uncertain future as the marine zoo shuts
Marineland Antibese near Cannes France, is shutting, after the French government brought in more strict rules of their care. The law was passed in 2021, but comes into force in 2026. It is thought that 90% of the visitors come to see the killer whales and other dolphins, so without them they are not viable.
It is unclear as to what will happen with the Orca. They are from Icelandic waters, but having spent so much time in captivity, would not be able to look after themselves in the wild. A deal had been made to send them to a Japanese park, but there was outcry as their treatment would be worse, so the French government blocked it. There is another zoo in the Canary islands. A facility in Eastern Canada has suggested netting off around 40 hectares of a sea bay for them, where they could live out their lives, in relative comfort, and yet still be looked after by a team of vets and other carers.
Something similar has happened before. Keiko was the orca from the film Free Willy, and was rescued from captivity in 1996 and released into a similar bay in Iceland in 1998. Having spent more time in the wild, though he was able to relearn some skills and in 2002 he left with some wild orca. He swam to Norway, but unfortunately died from an infection in 2003.
Coastal Australia is having another flare-up where locals are suggesting that wind turbines are killing whales. If this were the case, it would mean that those who want to save the planet would need to choose between climate change and conservation of whales.
Pictures put up, include images of whales on fire, among others – paid for Newcastle adn Port Stephens Game Fish Club. They suggested that the posters highlighted risks that were known for the whales, but there is no credible evidence that wind turbines have any impact on whales (except during building, but as the picture shows this is short-lived). Indeed Quentin Hanich who is the editor of the academic journal Marine Policy recently had to spend a week debunking a fake article that purported to come from his publication, which claimed that 400 whales would die a year, if a proposed wind farm went ahead. While the facebook post where it originated was taken down, the fake articles can be written far faster than they can be taken down. This offshore wind farm in New south Wales, is opposed by everyone from locals to MPs from outside the region – usually because the are opposed to renewable energy development.
This seems short-sighted- while Australia does have a large coal industry, most is exported (only around 30% is used in the country, and coal in electricity generation is now so much more expensive than almost any renewable generation, that its days are numbered) and of Japan,South Korea, Taiwan,and India which takes the majority, only India does not have a 2050 pledge of zero carbon – so if those promises are to be kept, the market for most of the coal will disappear within the next 25 years.
Opposition has been fanned by the coalition, and people like Baraby Joyce (a renewable energy opponent and climate change denier) have been loudly stating that support for renewables was a cult and the people should fight back.
Amanda De Lore is also fighting against it, and suggest that the 3 month consultation period was rushed and hidden (it was not) and that offshore wind is “not clean, green energy”. She stated that the project was not taking her groups concerns into consideration. However, when concerns are raised which do not conform with reality (like suggesting that offshore wind turbines are not green) they should be ignored. Importantly, when you compare the death toll of offshore wind turbines to a coal power plant, the numbers are stark with thousands more species killed by coal power.
This is part of the issue with public consultation. When opponents lace the population with falsehoods, you find yourself having to engage in a years-long effort to correct, before you can even have an intelligent conversation.
Scientists claim to have had a 20 minute conversation with a humpback whale named Twain. By playing a recorded contact call, they encouraged Twain to approach the boat and circle it, responding to the contact call in a “conversational way”. Twain repeatedly matched aspects of the recorded call, in his response.
It seems odd that this would not be a regular part of their research, but at the current time it is not, and is thought to be the first communication of this sort between humans and a humpback whale.
It is thought that this behaviour supports our current way of looking for alien life of intelligence – like the humpback whale, aliens will be inquisitive enough to come and see what the species is that is making so much noise (the project is known as WHALE SETI). The project is using sensitive equipment to record whale sounds, and then using AI to analyse it.
Some discoveries include the identification of certain repetitive pattens and variations, which suggests an intent in the communications. We have already noted high levels of intelligence in animals like whales and dolphins, quite different to intelligence in humans. Unfortunately, the whales were not the aim of the research, and while the work may well be built on, in perhaps one day understanding more of what whales say, this project was to give insight into future attempts to communicate with aliens, not a current attempt to actually communicate with whales on earth.
Few people can avoid stopping to watch, if they spot cetaceans from a cliff. While the family is wide and varied, they are all pretty interesting. From some of the largest and most intelligent hunters such as killer whales to the largest animal on earth the blue whale.
Whale and dolphin watching tourism is worth a lot of money – this can be essential, as in many places the extra money helps a community survive.
I hope, overtime, to make this section of the website as large a list of places to view cetaceans and people who will help you in that quest.
As might perhaps be suspected, all of the mammal species which have returned permanently to the sea, and developed breathing holes located on their back (and therefore perfectly placed for taking quick breaths) are related.
So what is the most closely related living land mammal? Perhaps obviously, it is a species which spends much time in the water – the hippopotamus.
As with all of these pages, as we create pages for each individual species, they will be linked to the photo below.
So the baleen whales are split into three families, these are not large as there are only 16 species of baleen whales in the world. At the current time, there are roughly 1.1 million baleen whales in the worlds oceans
Below is a family tree of the group
Baleen Whales
Baleenideae – the rhight whales
The first living split is Baleenidae, this family is not huge. The north atlantic and north pacific are closest related, these species are closely related to the Southern pacific right whales. Their name is unfortunate – it is called right whale for 3 reasons, it swims slowly, floats when dead and carries a large amount of oil. This lead to all these species being hunted close to extinction.
The other family is called Balaenopteroidea. Here species peel off slowly. I will list them in the order that they split.
The first split is the minke whale – of which there are 2 species, the common and southern minke whale, with the grey whale being the next most similar.
Delphininidae – these are the oceanic dolphins – 37 species split into several subfamilies which we will deal with one by one.
Subfamily Delphininae – 15 species (tamanend bottle nose dolphin only recognized as separate species, will build page for it at some point when photos are readily available.
The next family is the beaked whales. There are 24 species, of which only 3-4 have been well studied. This is because they spend much of their time deep in the sea, it appears that each species does not have many members and they are incredibly reclusive in their habits.
One might ask how an air breathing animal can spend so much of its time deep in the ocean? Well the Curved beaked whale has had a dive timed at 138 minutes. More incredible, they only need around 2 minutes to catch their breathe before sinking back into the depths. This means that if required, they can spend just 20 minutes out of 24 hours at the surface – an incredible stunt.
There appear to be a great number of species that are extinct – these we will not list, but will mention each subfamily in passing.
Incertae sedis contains 5 extinct genus, Basal forms include 13 extinct genus
Subfamily Berardiinae contains 3 genus, 2 of which are extinct, but the third contains 3 living species (and one dead) .
The most populous genus Mesoplodon – mesoplodont whales
As you can see, many of the pictures are of dead whales, or skulls or diagrams, or even just text. This is because sightings of many species are so rare that they have never had a photo taken
As you can see from the whale family tree, the sperm whales are separate from the rest. However, they are toothed whales so belong in this section of the page.
All species are important, often reintroductions have failed because a small unnoticed animal was missed. Over time, we will amass pages for as many species as possible. However, just as important is seeing how species are closely related. As such as well as looking at species from a specific ecosystem or family, we will also include family trees of many of the families on earth. It should be noted, that this is to help you find wildlife you wish to see, so will never link to every species. In either way, these links to these will be placed at the top.
Original paper - OrthoMaM: A database of orthologous genomic markers for placental mammal phylogenetics. Ranwez V., Delsuc F., Ranwez S., Belkhir K., Tilak M. & Douzery E. J. P. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2007, 7 : 241.
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