If you were a whale, chances are you wouldn't like someone following along above you in a motorboat. That's traditionally how researchers ascertain what types of bacteria are present in a whale's exhaled breath, though. Now, scientists have utilized a less intrusive method – they've used a drone.
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Humpback whales are famous for their complex and mysterious songs, and scientists tuning into their sounds off the coast of Australia have discovered the interesting way in which they acquire these singing skills.
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Many whales feed by filling their mouths with water, then straining organisms out of that water as they expel it, using fibrous plates in their mouth called baleen. Now, scientists claim to have come a step closer to understanding how that baleen came to be.
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The blue whale may be the largest animal ever, but new research has found it only claimed the title relatively recently. By comparing the bones of modern whales to fossils, a team of scientists has traced the growth spurt to about 4.5 million years ago, when climate change increased the food supply.
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Scientists have never been able to pin down the exact purpose a narwhal tusk serves, but now using drones, they've uncovered direct evidence of the overgrown tooth in action, with a healthy appetite appearing to be a key motivator.
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Scientists know little about the behavior of baby humpback whales during their first long migration, but new recordings appear to have unearthed a crafty technique that might just help keep them out of the jaws of killer whales.
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The recent, tragic mass stranding of hundreds of pilot whales in New Zealand has rekindled debate as to the mystery behind what causes mass cetacean beachings. Solar storms, odd coastal topography and human-influenced undersea noise pollution are just some of the suspects.
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While underwater drones and robotic vessels provide scientists with handy ways to explore our world's oceans, there's another more obvious way to plumb the depths of our seas: by enlisting the help of the whales that dwell there.
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Scientists have picked up a "crazy," complex call from the depths of the Mariana Trench. Although the mysterious sounds haven't been attributed to an exact species just yet, marine researchers believe it's less the call of Cthulu and more a previously-unknown dialect of baleen whale song.
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A wide array of technology has been deployed to track and study whales unobtrusively, and now a team from Stanford has used a new suite of sensors to study the feeding habits of baleen whales in greater detail and released a video from the vantage point of riding on its back.
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