Posts Tagged ‘Ethics and Rights’
Rescuers find young girl’s body surrounded by dolphins
Reports from South Africa about a tragic drowning off Llandudno beach, Cape Town say that the body of a teenager was found surrounded by a pod of dolphins. Rescue services launched a search for the missing 15-year-old girl who is thought to have slipped off the rocks and been swept away by strong currents. Her body…
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Did sperm whales learn how to avoid whaling ships?
A new scientific paper gives a fascinating insight into how sperm whales living in the Pacific Ocean learned how to avoid whaling vessels in the 19th century. Sperm whales only have one natural predator – the orca (killer whale) and will form tight circles when threatened with their tails facing outwards to defend themselves. This…
Read MoreMeet the brainiacs of the underwater world – deep thinkers with intricate emotional lives
Whales and dolphins have big brains, and large brained beings have a few things in common. We live long lives, we’re sociable and our behaviour is complex. Females give birth to just a few children and take extraordinary care of each baby, teaching them life skills and helping them to become independent. Whales and dolphins behave in ways…
Read MoreWhy do female orcas live so long after they stop having babies?
Orcas are one of only five species known to experience menopause and females can live for many decades after their last calf. The only other mammals reported to exhibit this unusual life history strategy are short-finned pilot whales, belugas, narwhals and humans. The question of why females of any species should stop reproduction before the…
Read MoreDolphins sync when they work together
A new study has shown male bottlenose dolphins synchronise (sync not sink) their physical and verbal actions when they work together in a very similar way to humans. Using long-term acoustic data from studying a population of dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, researchers discovered that the male dolphins in the group matched the tempo of…
Read MoreWhale culture should play a part in their conservation says new international study
An international group of researchers working on a wide range of species, including whales, argues that cultural knowledge of these creatures needs to be taken into consideration when planning international conservation efforts and laws. A paper published in leading journal Science (Tuesday 26 February) makes a compelling case that growing scientific evidence on social learning, which can…
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