But to know the real effect of the many sounds on whales ‘lives, Danish researchers will collect data on guinea pigs’ hearing in the open, about which very little is known.
For the first time, researchers from the Marine Biology Research Center have succeeded in setting up a data logger and collecting data from a captured guinea pig in Fjord & Bælt in Kerteminde. The place is a combined tourist attraction and research center.
Now the researchers will try to put the meters on wild guinea pigs in the wild as well, so that for the first time they can collect data on the small whales’ hearing while they swim freely in the sea.
Magnus Wahlberg is a biologist and expert in marine mammals at the Marine Biological Research Center in Kerteminde at the University of Southern Denmark. He and his colleagues have just received 2.9 million from the Danish Independent Research Foundation.
– There are many concerns about whales and the environment. But in fact, we have very little data and only from captivity on how noise affects the hearing of guinea pigs and whales, he says.
The electronics themselves, which are put on the guinea pigs with suction cups, are the size of a third mobile phone. The data logger should only sit on the animals for a few hours, after which it falls off.
– It should preferably fall off reasonably quickly, so we can find it afterwards, before the guinea pig swims too far away, says Magnus Wahlberg.
In addition to Denmark being an international leader in research in this area, the researchers also have a good collaboration with Danish bottom net fishermen, who now and then get a guinea pig in the net.
Then they contact the researchers, who rush out and put the equipment on the animal.
– The bottom seine fishermen inadvertently catch five to ten guinea pigs every year, and then we must be ready to move out quickly. It only takes five to ten minutes to put the equipment on, then they are released into the open again. But if we get results from anything over three guinea pigs, then it is a success, says Magnus Wahlberg.
Jonas Teilmann is a senior researcher at Aarhus University, who is an international leader in whale research.
– It’s a great project because you have never found out what whales hear when they swim. Only when lying still in the water surface without noise. And it is a completely different matter how they hear in the wild when they swim around. If it succeeds, it will be completely innovative and amazing for our knowledge of the lives of whales, he says.
The researchers’ knowledge can probably be transferred internationally to other toothed whales such as orcas and perhaps sperm whales.
– There are so many things that we today are just guessing. It is absolutely crucial that we understand the impact of humans on these animals, for whom hearing is the most important sense, says Teilmann.
– We limit noise noise today on land. We have never done that at sea so far, although everything is much noisier under water than on land.
The organization World Animal Protection (WAP) has previously attacked the experiments with the captured guinea pigs on Fjord & Bælt.
– We have disputed whether there was a need to continue to take more wild animals into captivity, which could instead be released, says Stephanie Klausen from WAP.
– So we have been opponents of their guinea pigs in captivity. However, we can support the observation and research of animals in their normal environment rather than captivity.
Source: The Nordic Page