The.fintalk

Echolocation in toothed-whales

Echolocation in cetaceans was first proven in Atlantic bottlenose dolphins when they located cups over their eyes and observed that the animal was still able to swim and avoid obstacles.

The animals emit a short intense acoustic wave which hits objects and reflects back to them providing information to them. But how does it work?

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), like any mammal, have two nares or nasal openings. This openings lead to the blow hole that is located on the top of their head. Vocal cords are absent in cetaceans but they have another interesting muscle structure called ‚monkey lips‘. These muscles regulate the air flow from the lungs to the blow hole creating whistles or clicks.

These clicks are shaped and directed as they pass through the melon of the animals. The melon is a mass of fatty tissue that is located in the front oft he head of cetaceans.

The sound then leaves the head of the animals, travels through the water, hits an object and the resulting echo is perceived by the animal through the echo waves that enter the mandible skull which directs the sound to the inner ear.

The information from the inner ear is then passed onto the brain of the animal allowing it to create an image for them to understand what’s going on around them.

Have a look at the picture and let me ask me questions about it in the comments :)

📸 Talia Cohen
📸 Achat

What is echolocation? 🔊🦇🐬

Echolocation is a process in which animals emit a sound into the environment and then listen to echoes tat come back from objects around them. They use this information to understand their environment and hunt!

While we could all perceive echoes in our environment, the term echolocation is reserved for a specialized acoustic adptation by animals that utilize this capability on a regular basis to forage for prey, navigate, and avoid predators.

Echolocation is used by different animals in very different environments and comes from an adaptation to low visibility possibilities. The most common species that use it are bats and odontocetes (toother whales). But it is also used by some birds, some shrews (small mole-like mammals) and even Daniel Kish a man who is blind but uses echolocation to ‚see‘!

What the animal actually does is measure the time that passes between their emited sound and the delay of receiving their echo. The closer the object, the shorter the period of time for an echo to come back.

Next time we will see how it works in toothed whales! So stay tuned (;

📸 Clement Falize

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# whales

Happy Shark Awareness Day from me and the coles house shoes on earth!

Today I learned a new detail on a fun fact that I want to share with you.

One of the reasons sharks are so vulnerable is that they can have very long gestation periods (time they are pregnant). This period can vary from 5 to 6 months (the shortest) for the bonnethead shark and up to 3.5 years such as for the basking shark! Can you believe that?!

These animals then normally have a very low number of babies (pups), making their entire reproductive cycle very slow. 

Furthermore, sharks take way longer than normal fish to reach sexual maturity. White sharks reach sexual maturity at 26 years for males and 33 years for females! This means that a white shark that was born the same year as me is still not ready to have pups (I can see some parallels 😇).

Let's keep on learning about sharks! Share your favourite shark fact in the comments!

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FAO E-lerning Academy 🌊🌱☀️

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.  

In this effort, they cover all topics related to food such as agriculture or fisheries but also plant protection, pest management, plant breeding programs, investments in agriculture and fisheries, animal genetics and much more.

If these are topics that interest you I suggest you to check out their FREE Online learning Academy where they have super interesting courses on different topics!

The courses are self-paced and you can start them whenever you want and do them in your own time. They can be done online or be downloaded and worked through without Wifi. They offer interactive presentations, with quizzes to check your knowledge. The duration of the courses varies but is normally around 2.5 hours which makes them totally achievable and still gives you a great overlook about a topic.

Here are some of my top picks. I just did the course in ‘Fisheries and Aquaculture Response to Emergencies (FARE)’ and I am looking forward to starting the ‘Simulation Exercises for Animal Disease Emergencies. Go check out the link below and let me know if you are going to take any course!

https://elearning.fao.org/

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