About 120 Short-finned Pilot Whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, have been returned to the sea, following a mass stranding event. The Whales began to wash up on a beach near Panadura, on the southwest coast about 25 km to the south of the capital, Colombia, on Monday 2 November 2020. Volunteers from the local community, joined by members of the country's Navy and Coast Guard, immediately began work to return the Whales to the sea, with most of the Animals thought to have been returned safely, although at least four have known to have died.
Short-finned Pilot Whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, are considered to be of Least Concern under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with a global population of over 700 000 individuals, split into four distinctive populations, two in the Pacific and one each in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. They typically live in pods of eight to ten individuals, but sometimes assemble into larger groups, sometimes with many hundreds of individuals congregating at the same location. However, this behaviour can make these Whales vulnerable to mass strandings, if large gatherings become spooked or disorientated by some event. The actual causes of such strandings are unclear, with a variety of causes having been suggested, including naval sonar, soar activity, and anomalies in the Earth's geomagnetic field.
See also...
