20 August 2024: New study on the synchronized behaviour of bowhead whales

A new study by Podolskiy, Teilmann, and Heide-Jørgensen offers new insights into the complex diving behaviour of bowhead whales. The paper, entitled “Synchronization of Bowhead Whales” and published last week in Physical Review Research, describes the investigation based on the analysis of 144 days of dive records from 12 bowhead whales tagged in Disko Bay, West Greenland. The researchers found that bowhead whales dive deeper during the daytime in spring, likely in sync with the vertical migration of their prey. Additionally, the study revealed that these whales can synchronize their behaviour with each other over distances of up to 100 kilometres, sometimes for as long as a week.

You can read the full article by Podolskiy et al. here: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.033174

Photo credit: Fernando Ugarte