Rescuers Help Refloat Pilot Whales Stranded in New Zealand (IMAGE)
Caption
Rescuers help refloat pilot whales stranded in New Zealand. Recent research has shed some light on whether family relationships play a role in beachings of otherwise healthy whales. Investigators used genetic data to describe the kinship of individual long-finned pilot whales involved in mass strandings. The study found that stranded groups are not necessarily members of one extended family, contradicting the hypothesis that stranding groups all descend from a single ancestral mother. Further, many stranded calves were found with no mother in evidence.
Credit
Project Jonah New Zealand Inc.
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