whale poop floats

Really, the title of today’s blog should be enough to satisfy you. But I’ll go ahead and provide a little more so we don’t leave any loose ends.

Whale populations are not in good shape, as we all know. Not too terribly many are left, and their long reproductive cycles make a very daunting road to population recovery. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth trying to save them, and whale scientists are on top of the problem. And as any good scientist will tell you, in order to answer a question, there must be data. We need whale data. How many there are, how many males vs. females there are, how and when they reproduce, where they are, where they go, what they eat, what they eat eats, etc. But whales aren’t the easiest animals to collect data from. They live underwater and are somewhat elusive. There aren’t many of them. Really, the data odds are stacked against us.

Enter “scat detection dog.” Scientists have trained dogs to identify and locate the scent of poop- specifically whale poop. Floating, mucusy globs of poo. The dog will stand at the bow of a boat and sense the smells in the air. If he smells some poo off to the left, the dog will orient himself port. If he smells poo off to the right, he orients himself starboard. The boat driver then corrects the path of travel towards the direction indicated by the dog. The pooch will continue to acclimate towards the direction of the smell until the path of travel has been adjusted so that they are headed directly towards the whale poo.

Once the poop is found, it is collected. From it, scientists can develop a profile full of useful information. They can tell which whale did it (or if it belonged to a whale new to the territory), the sex, the diet of the whale, hormone (and therefore stress) levels, toxin levels, and of course approximately when the animal took the poo.

Another bonus about this method is that it is completely non-invasive for the whales. A lot of times, biologists will place or implant tracking devices on animals as a means of collecting data. For instance, a grizzly bear might be fitted with a collar that transmits location data. And while they swear up and down that the bear doesn’t even know the collar is there (yeah right), the animal still has to endure the stress of being tranquilized and fitted with the collar. But the whales never even know that they are being monitored... I wouldn’t even be slightly annoyed if someone was following me around sampling my poo. Well, maybe a little annoyed…

The linked article below will tell you more about this scat-detection dog business. It notes that it is applied to monitor killer whales- which have been found to have the highest concentrations of pesticides and other man-made toxins of any animal on earth.

This week’s challenge: can you think of any reasons why? Feel free to post thoughts or theories, or just ponder them in your head. I encourage you to consider the role killer whales play in their ecosystems, specifically within the food web.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/07/144752385/dog-trained-as-ultimate-whale-pooper-snooper