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Famine or Feast – Isle of Lewis Research Blog

Famine or Feast – Isle of Lewis Research Blog

It was a slow start to this seasons fieldwork here on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. High winds (at this time of year the remnants from the various hurricanes battering the Caribbean and USA) and lots of rain kept us on land and indoors for the first week however patience, being a…

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Why are beached whales taken to landfill?

The sight of any beached whale or dolphin can be really distressing for onlookers, even for scientists like me who visit strandings on a regular basis. After watching the ‘whale fall’ experiment on Britain’s Whales on ITV, many of supporters were asking why stranded whales are often taken to landfill rather than being placed to…

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The little porpoise making big waves

No matter what your opinion on ex-situ conservation is (and they can be varying), there is no doubt that the project to “save” the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise from extinction is reaping some early rewards.  This little porpoise is restricted to the middle and lower reaches of China’s Yangtze River (including two adjoining lakes)…

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Indus River dolphins be dammed!

Dolphins living close to humans face more threats than those that live far from land and far from human intervention. Dolphins found in coastal and riverine environments therefore are in more immediate danger of extirpation.  I recently gave an overview of the situation facing Nepal’s remaining dolphins where the biggest threat to their continued survival…

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Familiar Fins, New Faces and Bizarre Encounters … !!

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that Scotland has been having a dismal summer this year, low temperatures and rain and wind galore. The weather however isn’t going to stop our dolphins go about their daily business and so we returned (even more determined than ever) to our field site on the Isle of Lewis…

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Nepal’s forgotten dolphins …

Rivers in Nepal are treated as goddesses, so why are the creatures found within them not given the same reverence? The Nepalese believe that their rivers are the “ever flowing and inspiring source of beauty, abundance and infinite adventure” yet one of the most iconic animals ever to have inhabited them – the Ganges River…

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Dolphin brains are more complex than initially thought

Hearing and seeing are largely thought to be two seperate senses. Dolphins however also use sound to see, a technique known as echolocation (see illustration below) where an individual dolphin sends out an acoustic signal (clicks etc.) and whatever it hits, or bounces off of sends back to the dolphin where it can then “see” what…

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Is Climate Change causing whales to relocate?

When a Gray whale was spotted off the coast of Israel in 2010 and then three weeks later off the coast of Spain (almost 2,000km away) it set the whale and dolphin community into a spin. Gray whales are considered to be extinct in the north Atlantic Ocean so where had this whale come from…

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Breaking news on illegal slaughter of dolphins off Sri Lanka

WDC has received disturbing news this week regarding the illegal slaughter of dolphins in the coastal waters of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has deservedly become one of the world’s top destinations for tourists wanting to experience the wonder of blue whales, yet further up the coast from where these leviathans can be encountered, in the waters…

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