Research into family lives of blue whales - Wildlife Australia Guide

Whale of a time

Researcher’s rare footage reveals blue whales’ intimate family lives

THE INTIMATE family lives of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), including a blue whale nursing its calf underwater, has been revealed in extraordinary footage captured in a project led by an international marine ecologist from Charles Darwin University (CDU) and Australian National University (ANU). 

Marine scientist Dr Karen Edyvane, who is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at CDU, an Associate Professor at ANU, and a UN-recognised expert on the Arafura and Timor Seas, has been conducting research in Timor-Leste since 2006. 

Dr Edyvane said the evidence of blue whale’s reproductive and calving behaviour has remained largely ‘unknown’ in the scientific community, until now.

“Our decade-long research and ‘citizen science’ program has documented some of the lesser-known, intimate reproductive behaviours of blue whales, some for the very first time,” she said.

“From newborn calves and nursing mothers to amorous adults in courtship, the waters of Timor-Leste really are providing blue whale scientists with some of our first glimpses into the private lives of