Beluga hearing

A beluga whale during a physiological hearing test and physical exam. The three suction cup sensors measure the animals neurological response to low level sounds, from the surface of the skin (NMML permit #14245, TAM photo)

Well, this post has been a little while in coming, but a great post nonetheless. For the first two weeks of September, Aran was invited to work with the National Marine Mammal Lab, Alaska Dept of Fish and Game and the Georgia Aquarium as a part of their health assessments of Bristol Bay belugas. They run physical exams on wild belugas (just like our physicals at the doctor's office) where they work in a capture-release project to gather basic health data on these animals in an effort to understand the overall health of the population and make inferences on belugas in general. Aran was up there to do the hearing tests of these guys. It was an incredibly successful project. We had access to 7 belugas for hearing tests and recorded audiograms (hearing ranges and sensitivities) on all the animals. It was quite extraordinary. With a first look at the data, the animals heard extremely well. We're currently taking a detailed look at the records now.  But we are quite excited about this project. It was a rare chance to investigate wild cetacean hearing and show a healthy population of belugas!