Hunting the Ocean's Giants - Livestreamed Lecture from Aarhus University

Professor Peter Teglberg Madsen from the Department of Biology at Aarhus University presents a lecture on whales - the largest animals ever to have lived on Earth. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, we now know that ocean ecosystems depend entirely on them as apex predators.

Using drones and suction-cup-mounted measuring equipment, researchers can now track whales at depths previously inaccessible. The lecture takes the audience on a hunt for porpoises in Danish waters, shows deep-sea cameras capturing how sperm whales find food more than 1,000 meters below the surface, and explores how a Greenland whale survives in Disko Bay and how a humpback whale mother can nurse a calf for half a year without eating. Throughout, the possibilities for sustainable coexistence with these animals are discussed. This is an updated version of a lecture from spring semester 2019.

The event is livestreamed from Aarhus University to more than 350 locations as part of the "Public Lectures in Natural Science" series, supported by the Carlsberg Foundation.

The lecture begins at 18:55 - please arrive by 18:45 at the latest. Registration opens Tuesday, September 8, 2026.