Bryde's Whale

We have seen Bryde’s Whale in several parts of the world. When one is seen, the Brits shout ‘brides’ across the deck while the hispanophones (in the Galapagos, for example) shout ‘bridies’, pronounced as the Scottish pasty. I now find we are all wrong.

Bryde’s whale is named after the Norwegian, Johan Bryde (1858-1925) who founded the whaling industry in South Africa. The pronunciation is something like ‘brude’s’ or 'brudess' (I can never get my tongue round Scandinavian pronunciation or its rules, despite being born in the old Danelaw part of England where streets are still ‘gates’. So next time you are whale-watching you can smugly shout ‘Brude’s’ across the deck, while the rest of the crowd wonder what on earth you are talking about.

I also had not know, until I started looking it up, how much uncertainty there is on the taxonomy of Bryde’s Whale and how much more needs to be known before more definitive pronouncements can be made. The IUCN Red List has the details of the various forms that go under the heading of Bryde’s.

Balaenoptera edeni (Anderson, 1879) is the scientific name in use because Bryde’s Whale, described from specimens killed off South Africa by Olsen in 1913 and named B. brydei, was considered to be synonymous with the form described by Anderson which was collected just off the shore of Burma. The original edeni (Eden’s Whale) is thought to be smaller at maturity than ‘ordinary’ Bryde’s whale and has been called the ‘pygmy’ version; some have now separated the two into the original two species; some consider them subspecies.

Bryde's Whales off Mirissa, Sri Lanka, 26 November 2013                                                           AJP Photograph

There have been other findings of similar whales that further confuse the issue but the point of mentioning the two forms in the current context is that in the northern Indian Ocean, off the southern tip of Sri Lanka, we saw Bryde’s Whales on both days we were there in November 2013, along with the Blue Whales, Orcas and Spinner Dolphins. I now see that there is a claim, with a video on Youtube and articles in the Sri Lankan press, of a possible sighting of Eden’s Whale, the dwarf or pygmy form or separate species, off Sri Lanka. I saw a number of critical comments as to this identification but they seem to have disappeared when I looked for them again. But this observation illustrates how much there is still to find out about marine mammals and how difficult research is in this field.

Blue Whales off Sri Lanka: Orcas attacking a beaked whale as a bonus

On 25 November 2013 we headed off from Mirissa hoping to see Blue Whales but in the GPS position some had been seen the day before there were two Orcas, or in old money, Killer Whales. You can see them on the video footage I took (below or directly on YouTube) along with the Blue Whales.

In looking for further information on orcas in Sri Lankan waters, I came across the brilliant Orca Project Sri Lanka (OPSL) which, to quote: is the first citizen-science project centred on studying orcas (Killer Whales) sighted off Sri Lanka. On scrolling down the posts I found that our two orcas were known to them. They were OM001 ‘King’ and OK008 ‘Arya’ and have been seen off Mirissa in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. After we saw them on 25 November 2013, they appeared again on 7 January, 12 April and 7 June 2014.

The two orcas.    AJP Photograph

Then things got even more interesting. A fellow traveller on the Naturetrek tour whale-watching extension sent us a still photograph which showed the orcas pushing what appeared to be some sort of dolphin with a brownish coloration around the base of a beak. I had missed it on video as I changed positions but could just see the end of the action as I began to film again. Other photographers had sent stills to OPSL and they in turn asked experts on marine mammals. Here is an extract from OPSL’s post of 19 December 2013 (the photographs are shown there):

…OPSL in collaboration with Josh McInnes of the The Transient Killer Whale Research Project are currently writing a small paper on a very exciting finding. When OM001 and OK008 visited Mirissa on the 25th of November, they decided to chow down on the local marine-life...so what's on their menu? Turns out they like Beaked whale, deep diving and little-understood cetaceans of the Ziphiidae family…Observation details include the orcas feeding on an unidentified object. In two of the images, a beak or rostrum can be seen with a patchy brown/green colouration to the surrounding skin. OPSL contacted Josh McInnes, who specializes in the study of mammal-eating (transient) killer whales of the Pacific Northwest, to offer his opinion on the ID. After looking at the photos, Josh concluded that the beak shape and brown/green colouration (caused by diatoms) appears to be consistent with that of a Blainville’s beaked whale Mesoplodon densirostris.

I had seen a report from the BBC which described research on the stealth mode Blainville’s Beaked Whale adopts when it is comparatively near the surface. In the depths the beaked whales are rather vociferous but on rising towards the surface for air sonar silence reigns. With orcas around I can see why that is a good strategy.

Links to this and other work on the fascinating world of ziphid cetaceans, written by the lead worker, Natacha Aguilar Soto, of La Laguna University in the Canary Islands, are here. A video showing their work on beaked whales is here.

The Smithsonian Institution has a Beaked Whale Identification Guide showing photographs of dead specimens. Another possibility, purely on the basis of one specimen stranded on Sri Lanka is Mesoplodon ginkgodens, a species known only from a few dozen specimens. It would be interesting to hear whether the marine mammal experts can eliminate this one. From a size comparison with the orcas, my impression, and it is only an impression, is that the beaked whale killed must have been not fully grown (and female?) when some of the clearer differences between the two species might not be evident. However, looking at the photographs in the Smithsonian collection, I do see where the experts are coming from. Whatever, the time must be ripe for some hydrophonics in the deep waters of Dondra Head even though the sound of ships’ engines will be a constant feature. Has anybody tried to pick up the sounds of beaked whales there yet?

NOTE ADDED 12 APRIL 2022

Well we did have a photograph of the orca battering the beaked whale. I was looking through AJP's still photographs and noticed it, taken what must have been seconds from the ones taken by a member of our party. The rostrum is clearly recognisable:

Blue Whales and Ships off Sri Lanka

Nearly a year ago we were off the southern tip of Sri Lanka to see Blue Whales. The chance of seeing the largest living animal that has ever lived was too good to be missed and the reliability of a sighting in the right season from the boats that are based at Mirissa was said to be extremely high. I am pleased to say that report was correct and if sea conditions are good then whales, as the photographs show, will be seen.

                                     AJP Photographs

Heading out from Mirissa to the sea of Dondra Head to the east where the continental shelf ends, one is not slow to realise that as well as spotting whales one is also spotting ships heading west—a steady stream of very large container ships. It also does not take long to realise that the Blue Whales are living in that shipping channel. The odd traumatic meeting of very large mammal and very large ship seemed inevitable. Indeed, I find there are reports of an increased number of blue whale strandings in recent years with some carcasses showing blunt force trauma. However, strandings in Sri Lanka would be an underestimate of any fatalities since during the north-east monsoon bodies would be carried away from that coast. The key question, of course, is whether fatalities or injuries from collisions with ships are having an effect on the size of the population and its ability to recover from exploitation in the past.

The whales really are in the shipping lanes                                                                                 AJP Photographs

Recently, I came across a new paper presented at the International Whaling Commission’s Annual Meeting of the Scientific Committee, held in May 2014, that set out to investigate this problem. The survey work was done between February and April 2014 (the report for the meeting must have been prepared with commendable despatch).  The abstract of the paper, Preliminary results of surveys to investigate overlap between shipping and Blue Whale distribution off southern Sri Lanka, says it all:

Surveys were conducted off the southern coast of Sri Lanka during February to April 2014 in order to investigate the distribution patterns of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in relation to current shipping lanes and further offshore. There have been several reported ship strikes of blue whales in this area and the IWC Scientific Committee has recognised the potential for ship strikes to have population level impacts on blue whales in the northern Indian Ocean. A total of 1413km of visual survey effort was conducted on 16 survey days along north south transects between 5° 28’ N and 5° 53’ N. The highest densities of blue whales were observed in the current shipping lanes, peaking at an average of 0.12 individuals km-2 in the westbound shipping lane. These high densities of whales combined with one of the busiest shipping routes in the world suggest a severe risk of ship strikes. Previous data on blue whale distribution and coastal upwellings indicate consistent and predictable patterns of whale distribution, suggesting there is considerable potential for effective measures to keep ships and whales apart. 

This is one of the figures from the report showing the sightings along the transects as well as the shipping lanes (westbound to the north and eastbound to the south).

The next map shows a cut-down Figure 8 of the report. It plots the sightings of Blue Whales by the whale-watching boat Raja & The Whales (used for the survey; the Captain is a co-author) in 2013 and 2014. On that I have superimposed my camera GPS data for our sightings on two days in November 2013. No wonder we seemed close to the westbound shipping.

The question then arises of course as to whether the data showing a clear coincidence of whales, ships and whale-watching boats will have any effect in either moving the channels to the south or in introducing speed restrictions which appear to be effective in preventing collisions with whales. A related but pertinent question is will development of the new Chinese-funded port at Hambantota, along the coast to the east from Dondra Head, have any effect on the density and route of traffic through the water frequented by the whales?

AJP Photographs

The following is the video footage of Blue Whales, Orcas, Bryde's Whales and Spinner Dolphins I took on 25 and 26 November 2013. It can also be seen directly on YouTube here and here.

Leeches in Sri Lanka: A Coincidence Shines the Light

Last November, having got drenched from a sudden tropical shower, I was sheltering with others in the party at the entrance to Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka (Ceylon, in old money and to stamp collectors) while eating my packed lunch. Leeches were all around us. I was watching the leeches on the edges of the path through binoculars just after the rain had stopped. I noticed that as the sun started to break through, many of the leeches in deep shade started to loop towards to the bright areas. That the leeches (a fair way from the attraction of human bodies) might be phototropic crossed my mind. A just-so story flitted across the consciousness: animals like wild boar and deer move along defined paths which are more exposed to the sun than the undergrowth, hence it would make sense to hang around light places in the hope of passing trade. While I am singularly attractive to lurking leeches (with ample evidence from Borneo and, now, Sri Lanka) and particularly inept at spotting their attachment quickly enough, my attention was soon taken by having to remove two of them that were taking an armful and a legful, respectively, and the question of leeches and light was put to the back of my mind.

Last week, I was looking up something else entirely. I was reading through J.R. Baker’s Biographical Memoir¹ and suddenly came across this:

It is certainly true that anyone who visits the wilder parts of Ceylon [Sri Lanka] is liable to be set upon by leeches, but not many people would think of sitting down at a table to play a game with them. Baker noticed that the leech is not only chemically attracted to the human body but it is also strongly phototropic. Thus a leech placed upon a table illuminated by a table lamp can be controlled in the direction of its movements by periodically changing the position of one’s seat or of the table lamp.

Baker spent the Oxford summer vacation of 1936 in Ceylon. His great-uncle was Sir Samuel Baker (1821-1893) the famous explorer of Africa, and there remained a family financial interest in a tea plantation at Nuwara Eliya. Baker, the great-uncle, had chartered a ship and taken people, animals, equipment and seed in order to found an agricultural settlement there in 1848; he stayed until 1855, leaving his brother in charge of further development, first of the farm and, later, as tea growing became established, of a tea plantation. We have been to Nuwara Eliya twice: a drive-through in 1968 and to stay in 2013. Apart from resembling a Scottish town in terms of the architectural style of the houses, the fields around Nuwara Eliya are full of typically British crops like leeks (field upon field of them) and beetroot (delicious curried). That’s all down to Baker apparently.

I was even more surprised to find in the references at the end of the Biographical Memoir, that Baker had been based at Sinharaja from the end of July to the beginning of September; his paper, describing what he did and what he saw is entitled, The Sinharaja Rain-Forest, Ceylon². He notes: 

The abundance of land-leeches (Haemadipsa zeylanica, Moquin-Tandon) greatly detracts from the pleasure of studying the Sinharaja Forest. I found it best to wear thin breeches cut like "plus-fours," stockings, boots with the tongues sewn in right up to the top, and puttees. This clothing by no means prevents leeches from penetrating to the skin of one's legs, but it greatly reduces the annoyance.

Baker included a map showing where he had camped (about 5 miles from the lodge where we stayed last year) and where he had walked. His walks had taken him along the same rough track we had walked and where I had sheltered and watched the leeches.

Here is Baker’s map of Sinharaja:

And here is a very short video of the leech in question and its acquisition of my blood:

John Randal Baker (1900-1984) was, and still is, well known for a number of different activities: the breeding season of birds in the tropics and the factors that trigger the onset of reproduction; the introduction of the terms proximate and ultimate causation; his cytological studies and textbook on the subject; his work on chemical contraception; his wars, especially with J. Brontë Gatenby, on the existence of the Golgi apparatus.

I have done a quick search to see what is now known of phototropism in leeches. Unfortunately, some people have interpreted his anecdotal findings of evidence of thermotropism; in other words, that his leeches were moving towards the heat of the lamp, but did not do proper experiments to distinguish between the two. So there we are, a small research project for somebody awaits. I can almost feel the cold light of an led torch being turned on.

1 Willmer, E.N., Brunet, P.C.J. 1985. John Randal Baker. 23 October 1900-8 June 1984. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 31, 33-63.

2 Baker, J.R. 1937. The Sinharaja rain-forest, Ceylon. Geographical Journal 89, 539-551.

Russell's Viper (Daboia russelli) in Sri Lanka

In my last post, I described how Burgess Barnett and Gwyn Macfarlane had found in the 1930s that the venom from Russell's Viper (now Daboia russelli, then called Vipera russelli) was the most effective of all those tested in clotting blood from haemophiliacs. I had never seen a Russell's Viper in the wild until last November when a juvenile decided to cross the road at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka while we were bird (and mammal) watching.

Here it is: