Public Lecture in Natural Science: Hunting the Ocean's Giants

Sensory physiologist Peter Teglberg Madsen gives a lecture on the lives of whales in the world's oceans. The lecture is an updated version of a talk from spring semester 2019 and takes place in Kultursalen, Ullerslev Kultur- og Idrætscenter.

For decades, researchers could only study whales in the brief moments they surfaced - or by dissecting dead animals. Drones and suction-cup-mounted measuring equipment now make it possible to follow them directly as they hunt at great depths far out at sea.

The lecture takes the harbour porpoise, the world's smallest whale, on a hunt in Danish waters and uses deep-sea cameras to examine how the sperm whale finds food at depths exceeding 1,000 metres. Along the way, the lecture also explores the survival of the Greenland whale in Disko Bay and the humpback whale mother, which can nurse and feed a calf for half a year without eating. The lecture concludes with the question of sustainable coexistence with these apex predators.