We have a new rival for the shrimp running on a treadmill in our ‘strangest way to test the health of animals’ competition.
Today’s entry: flying toy helicopters over whales to collect the mucus they spray through their blow-holes.
“Scientists have always found it difficult to study diseases in whales because of their size and obligate ocean life. Most of the studies on whale pathogens have focused on dead, stranded or captive animals, which are hardly representative of the normal population,” say Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, of the Zoological Society of London (press release).
“I was determined to find a way to crack this problem and eventually hit upon the idea of using a vehicle that could be flown above the animals, thus finding out more about them whilst still using a non-invasive sampling technique.”
Mark Simmonds, director of science at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, told Bloomberg: “The blow from a blue whale is a mixture of water, mucus, bacteria and anything else that’s in its lung. It’s a good approach, and it’ll be nice to see it written up.”
New Scientist notes:
She first tried tying herself to a research boat and leaning overboard to catch a bit of whale “snot” in Petri dishes. “It worked,” she says, “but it wasn’t very safe.”
Her technique is now somewhat more sophisticated. For species like grey and sperm whales that do not mind being close to a boat, the researchers attach their Petri dishes to a long pole and hold them out over the blows.
With the shyer blue whale, they have had to resort to toy-sized helicopters.
There is a downside to this research: whales can smell real bad. “It varies quite a lot,” says Acevedo-Whitehouse (Times). “… sometimes it’s pretty rotten. We’ve been pretty worried when the wind changes and you get completely drenched in it – they didn’t smell well.”
Or, as someone else might put it: “It smells like the left wing of the day of judgment, it is an argument for the pit.”
Headline watch
Thar she blows. Model aircraft sniff out ailments in whales – The Times
Thar she blows: Snot offers clues to whale health – New Scientist
Image: ZSL