Student testimonial
Ceres - MSc Animal Sciences (internship Animal Ecology at Whalesafari, Norway)
Ceres wanted to do a research internship that fitted her interests: marine animal ecology. By taking the initiative herself, she found it at Whalesafari in Andenes Norway. She documented the aggressive interaction between solitary living adult male sperm whales and killer whales. Of previously taken pictures, but also by direct observation.
The thing I learned during this project is that you can do anything if you really want to.
“For my research internship in the specialisation Animal Ecology, internship I wanted to do a project with the chair group Marine Animal Ecology (MAE). Sadly, MAE did not have a project that fitted my interests, so I started contacting multiple universities over the world myself. Via the Marine Mammal Department at a university in Denmark, I came in contact with Whalesafari in Andenes Norway. Because of Covid-19 and the possible war (the Andenes Airport is a NATO airbase), I started my research internship online. But luckily, I was still able to go to Andenes and actually see the whales I was studying. So, I packed a lot of sweaters and hopped on three planes to get to my destination in Norway.”
“For my research project itself, I am looking at the aggressive interaction between solitary living adult male sperm whales and killer whales. Killer whale attacks on sperm whales have rarely been observed and observations mostly occurred on sperm whale pods with juvenile individuals in warmer waters. For artic waters, like the water surrounding Andenes, it had not been documented yet. So everything I discovered during tours was new information. I digitalized and organized picture taken of all the sperm whales since 1987. When a sperm whale dives, it shows its tail very clearly, allowing us to identify the individual and see if there are scars present that are caused by killer whale rakes. The tail of a sperm whale is almost like a fingerprint, every tail is unique. I found that killer whales harass sperm whale in the waters surrounding Andenes as there were whales found with fresh, still bleeding wounds, and there was even a direct observation noted.”
“While I was in Andenes, I joined the Whalesafari tours on the boat to spot different cetaceans. I really liked it and it was a great way to get some fieldwork experience. I joined the tour 15 times over the course of 5 weeks. A tour takes between 4 and 6 hour, so I spend quite a lot of time out at sea. This was a completely different experience than I ever had before and on the first trip I did get seasick. I noticed that it was relatively easy to get used to the movement of the boat, walk around and, luckily, my stomach adjusted to it too. On the boat, I took pictures of all the cetaceans that were spotted, but especially the sperm whales. Next to that, I also noted down information about thesighting, including the species, amount of individuals, location and behaviour that was observed.”
“Being out on the sea and to see all the different species is just magical. I saw lots of sperm whales diving, but also killer whales displaying playing behaviour, pilot whales that were spy hopping, and even a humpback whale that was breaching. It was hard to take my eyes of the animals and it are memories I will always treasure. The crew of the boat was very nice and did not mind answering all the questions I had.”
“The thing I learned during this project is that you can do anything if you really want to. No project that you like at your chair group? Ask around, research yourself and find one that does fit you. Do not let seasickness or other climate conditions stop you, because you will get used to it and it becomes an experience you will never forget.”