Earlier this year, MUCRU commenced research on the poorly understood Australian snubfin and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia. Here, MUCRU Phd candidate Alex Brown reports on an exciting second trip to the Cygnet Bay study site in September 2012.
WA Winter Wanderers
Where do adult male dolphins go during winter off Bunbury, Western Australia? We hypothesise that they move offshore, helping to explain their larger home ranges. Here, Kate Sprogis reports on her winter field season.
“Fish tales” from the SWMRP
Over the past 1.5 years, I have been carrying out dolphin surveys for my PhD in Bunbury, Western Australia, as part of the South West Marine Research Program. During this time my assistants and I have been boating for over 550 hours. Spending this much time on the water allows us to experience some amazing dolphin behaviour, such as feeding [...]
Spinner dolphins (listen to audio), false killer whales, rough-toothed dolphins and hammerhead sharks (see the video!)
We have now carried out 21 months of photographic-identification of spinner dolphins off Hawai’i Island. Over the past two months, we have encountered spinners dolphins, false killer whales, rough-toothed dolphins and hammerhead sharks. Read more here…
Update from Bunbury: male dolphins, lots of calves and hammerhead sharks
It has been over a year since Kate began her PhD project as part of the South West Marine Research Program. Her project is investigating the habitat use and population dynamics of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Bunbury. Here are some of the recent highlights.
Bunbury summer dolphin transects complete
Summer season field work complete Over the summer season (December- February) we encountered 62 dolphin groups. We were on the boat for 25 days (> 144 hours), completing: Six replicates of each of the Inshore, Backbeach and Buffalo Beach transects; and Three replicates of the Busselton, Backbeach offshore and Buffalo Beach offshore transects (see study [...]
New publication on bottlenose dolphin acoustics
Title and publication details: Jensen, F. H., Beedholm, K., Wahlberg, M., Bejder, L., and Madsen, P. T. 2012. Estimated communication range and energetic cost of bottlenose dolphin whistles in a tropical habitat. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 131: 582-592. Abstract and research conclusions: Bottlenose dolphins depend on whistles for many aspects of their [...]
Bunbury spring surveys complete
During this time, we were on the boat for 21 days and we encountered 65 groups of dolphins.
New Paper on the Source Parameters of Bottlenose Dolphin Echolocation Clicks
Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit (MUCRU) Adjunct Professor Magnus Wahlberg and colleagues publish new paper on source parameters of bottlenose dolphin echolocation clicks.
Dr. Ana Cañadas joins MUCRU
I would like to welcome Dr. Ana Cañadas to MUCRU. Ana has been appointed as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer within the School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at Murdoch University.
