scientist, mum | Director of the Westman Islands Research Centre, University of Iceland| marine mammal behavioural ecology and acoustic communication | PI at Icelandic Orca Project
icelandic-orcas.com
Filipa Samarra
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At the #ECSconference2025! After two full days of workshops the official opening ceremony was today kicking off this year’s conference organized by my alma mater the University of the Azores. Amazing to be back here after so many years!
Check out this nice infographic on our recent study on killer whale responses to pilot whales sounds. Thanks @whalescientists.bsky.social for putting this together and spreading the word! 🤓🐳🔈
#bioacoustics #MarineMammals #whales #SciCom
Filipa Samarra
First publication from @cherinebaumgartner.bsky.social in
@heredityjournal.bsky.social. Until recently North Atlantic herring stocks were thought to be genetically indistinguishable. This study shows similar gene flow among the killer whales that follow the Icelandic and Norwegian herring stocks.
Proud supervisor moment. The last chapter of @annaselbmann.bsky.social PhD is now published, well done Anna!! 👏👏 Find out more👇
Check out 👇 the @sciam.bsky.social article on our recent research on interactions between neonate pilot whales and killer whales. Thank you @marinacoladas.bsky.social
Proud supervisor ☺️ The second paper of @cherinebaumgartner.bsky.social PhD is out, this time describing even more fascinating interactions between pilot whales and killer whales. Check it out 👇
Hydrophone successfully recovered by our team today! 🥳 After 8 months at sea, I can’t wait to find out what it recorded! 🐋🐟
I wrote a little piece for @natureecoevo.bsky.social on how I ended up studying killer whales and why they’re so fascinating! ☺️
Really looking forward to reading this book when it’s released! Amazing work by @darrencroft.bsky.social @andrewfoote.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social and @stephanielking.bsky.social 👏
‼️NEW PAPER‼️
@ellenlhayward.bsky.social did an incredible job analysing video tags we deployed over the last few years in collaboration with Prof. Patrick Miller @seamammalresearch.bsky.social to investigate the cooperative feeding behaviour of killer whales Huge congratulations Ellen 👏👏👏
Filipa Samarra
Filipa Samarra
Anna Selbmann
Filipa Samarra
Filipa Samarra
Andy Foote
Filipa Samarra
Filipa Samarra
Filipa Samarra
New research reveals something unexpected: when killer whales hear the calls of long-finned pilot whales, they don’t investigate — they leave. Fast.
A top predator on the run! New paper on aversive responses of killer whales to the sounds of long-finned pilot whales – out now in Scientific reports – open access: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Below a short summary of the main results.
🔈🐳🤓
#bioacoustics #MarineMammals #whales
🧬 New Paper 🧬
Together with Eve Jourdain, @andrewfoote.bsky.social, @fipsamarra.bsky.social et al. we investigated how ecological & spatio-temporal factors shape gene flow in killer whales from Greenland to Norway. 🧶⬇️
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
So excited for first story with @sciam.bsky.social!
Baby pilot whales have been spotted swimming among a pod of orcas three times now. But were the interactions predatory or playful? 👶🐬🤷♀️
www.scientificamerican.com/article/icel...
New paper about unusual encounters in Icelandic waters…
In June 2022 and 2023, neonate pilot whales were observed swimming alone among groups of killer whales off south Iceland - with no other pilot whales in sight.
🧶⬇️
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
The Evolution of Cetacean Societies
Edited by @darrencroft.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social and.bsky.social @stephanielking.bsky.social and myself
Preorder available now
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Will share more details closer to release date
#whale #dolphin #animalbehaviour
Scientific Reports - Aversive behavioural responses of killer whales to sounds of long-finned pilot whales
www.nature.com
🎉 Excited to share our new paper on cooperative feeding in killer whales .
Using animal-borne audio and video data, we investigated tail-slap feeding, found evidence of role specialisation, and developed a novel acoustic method to estimate group-level feeding rates.
📖 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
⬇️
Heredity - Kinship clustering within an ecologically diverse killer whale metapopulation
www.nature.com
Newborn pilot whales have been spotted mysteriously swimming among pods of orcas. Scientists are trying to puzzle out how the pilot whale calves got there and what happened to them
This study documents two encounters off south Iceland where neonate pilot whales were observed in the company of killer whale groups, with no other pilot whales in the vicinity. The interactions invo...
New Species Spotlight:
Filipa Samarra @fipsamarra.bsky.social of the Icelandic Orca Project explains her fascination for Killer Whales rdcu.be/d9Q5s
Andy Foote
Abstract. Group hunting is a widespread phenomenon, fundamentally shaping predator social dynamics and trophic interactions with their prey. The foraging b
