www.livescience.com/animals/orca...
The experienced mama #orca gave birth right in front of the whale watchers, who cleared other vessels from the area to calm them.
#NorwegianOrcaSurvey captured drone photos of the protective circle.
#matriarchy

www.norwegianorcasurvey.no

Some great days at #ECS2026 in Dundee presenting our orca research 🫍 #multiwhale @biovitenskap.bsky.social #norwegianorcasurvey

But PHEW… presenting is hard at 7 months pregnant with squashed lungs & organs 😮‍💨😅 appreciate all the great feedback and interested people who found me after 🥹🫶

It was great to meet future @biovitenskap.bsky.social students at the @uio.no open day last week! I gathered some beautiful photos and videos from fieldwork with #norwegianorcasurvey to give an impression of how it is to do killer whale fieldwork in Norway!🤩🐳

Thanks for a fantastic conference NSFT!
A great opportunity to share our work on killer whales 🐳 at @biovitenskap.bsky.social @uio.no & #norwegianorcasurvey in a fun, inclusive and relaxed environment ❤️ Take note, other conferences!😉

The MULTIWHALE team are looking forward to sharing our results soon! 📈📊👩‍🔬👩‍💻

Our project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and we are a collaboration between @uio.no @biovitenskap.bsky.social , #norwegianorcasurvey plus many more! 🤗🙌

(7/7)

Note that we never sample calves 🖤🤍 And always assess the body condition and behaviour of the group before sampling. Animal welfare first 🙏❤️ (6/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

The tiny sample is used for EIGHT different analyses! 🔎🧬🔬It gives valuable knowledge into diet, health, pollutant levels, genetics and more to help us understand and mitigate the multiple stressors facing the population 🇳🇴🐳 (4/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

Every sampled whale is photo-identified 📸 So tissue analysis results can be linked to what we know about the whales from previous sightings. This also ensures we don’t sample the same whale twice in a season, and allows us to to observe the wound healing quickly! ☺️✅ (3/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

A small dart with a mounted tip is fired at the area behind the dorsal fin of a whale. When the dart hits the whale, it bounces off and floats. We can then retrieve the dart using a net, extract the tissue from the tip, and freeze it immediately on board ❄️🧪 (2/7)

📷 #norwegianorcasurvey

BIOPSY SAMPLING - WHAT & WHY? 🤔🐳

A thread 🧵

Ever wondered how whale researchers get samples? For our NRC project #MULTIWHALE, we collect skin & blubber from wild killer whales in Arctic Norway 🐳 This is how! 👇 (1/7)

📷 Krisztina Balotay

@uio.no
@biovitenskap.bsky.social
#norwegianorcasurvey

Still feeling high after an incredible week of science at #smmPerth2024 🤩 I presented results from MULTIWHALE & how stress hormones in Norwegian orcas are affected by whale watching boats. Stay tuned for the publication 🙌 #norwegianorcasurvey @biovitenskap.bsky.social @unioslo.bsky.social #forskning

This project was funded by @kldep’s #Arktis2030 programme and was a collaboration between @unioslo.bsky.social @biovitenskap.bsky.social , #norwegianorcasurvey , @uninmbu, @nilu_now and @havforskningen. Supervised by Katrine Borgå and Eve Jourdain 🐳