Anna Selbmann

Postdoctoral Researcher in Marine Mammal Ecology

🧪🌍 #science

A killer whale PostDoc! 🤯😍

MSc project MSc thesis projects in animal communication Laws of brevity across pipit (Anthus) species Across many human languages, there are several general principles in temporal patterning: most frequent word...

🔊 This the season! Looking or two MSc students to tackle
1. vocal efficiency across pipit species
and, surpsingly,
2. vocal tract anatomy of the great cormorant (bonus: I also have the heads to model hearing!)

Drop me a line! I love people! :)

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Can you add me? 🙂

Looks like some cool postdoc options here - including one on "Acoustic possibilities for Southern Ocean management dilemmas" 🎧🌊🚢🐳

#bioacoustics #MarineMammals

Thanks Bettina! Who would have thought that there is such a big overlap between marine mammal scientists and Asterix lovers! 🤓🐳

Thanks Andrew! And nice to meet you today!

Thanks to @cherinebaumgartner.bsky.social for putting all of this together! And to Heleen Middel, @jnschulze.bsky.social, Giulia Bellon and @fipsamarra.bsky.social for the great collaboration and fun we had on this!

So, what is going on? Play? Practice hunting? Caregiving? We did not observe either interaction from start to end, so we can only speculate 🤷 But, as scientists, we love a good puzzle, so we’ll keep investigating! 🕵️‍♀️

Interactions Between Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) and Neonate Long‐Finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala melas) off South Iceland 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...

The pilot whale calves were seen in echelon position, but also swimming away from the killer whales, and even being lifted out of the water. You can read all about it in our new publication: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Two weeks after the paper came out, we had a puzzling encounter with a group of killer whales that swam with a pilot whale calf 🤯 No other pilot whales were seen. And then, almost exactly a year later we observed another, different group of killer whales again with a pilot whale calf 🤯🤯🤯

Occurrence of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) and killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Icelandic coastal waters and their interspecific interactions - acta ethologica Long-finned pilot whales and killer whales are widely distributed across the North Atlantic, but few studies have reported their occurrence in Icelandic coastal waters. Here, we use sightings data fro...

In 2022 we published a paper describing interactions between pilot whales and killer whales in Icelandic waters. In all interactions, the pilot whales approached the killer whales and the killer whales avoided the pilot whales, sometimes in high speed chases.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Pilot whales and killer whales – it get’s weirder! 🐳🤓
#MarineMammals

Vacancies The University of Iceland is one of the largest employers in Iceland. The university's mission is to conduct academic research and education, a goal that can only be achieved through the continuous en...

Join us at the University of Iceland! They are hiring an assistant professor in marine and freshwater ecology! 🤓

Lots of water available in and around the country, plenty of cool nature and a volcanic eruption every now and then!
🌊🐟🐳🌿🌋

english.hi.is/about-ui/wor...

Killer whale vocalisations adhere to Menzerath's law, meaning that longer sequences are composed of shorter elements, but only in their call sequences, not in elements within calls.
➡️ Call sequences may be more relevant level of analysis for communication. 🤓

Check out this cool meta-analysis on whale vocalisations and whether they might adhere to similar laws as human language. Including some of our data on killer whales! 🐳🎵
#MarineMammals #bioacoustics #animalcommunication

Haha! It looks amazing! 🤩 Glad you like it and congratulations again Dr. Theresa!

The Good Whale This is the story of a wildly ambitious science experiment to return Keiko to the ocean — while the world watched. A new limited podcast series from Serial Productions and the New York Times.

Recently finished 'The good whale'. Beautifully told, well researched and balanced podcast about the crazy story of Keiko returning to the ocean. Featuring our field site in the Westman Islands, South Iceland! 🐳🌊🇮🇸

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Check out @cherinebaumgartner.bsky.social new paper on gene flow in killer whales from Iceland, Greenland and Norway. Super cool stuff! 🐳🧬🤓

Thanks to @fipsamarra.bsky.social for getting this started and to Rodrigo Martínez Catalan for making the videos!

Find out more on: www.icelandic-orcas.com

YouTube video by Westman Islands Research Centre (WIRC) Acoustics & Interspecific interactions

Recently, the Icelandic Orca Project started a video series about our research and the tools we use. First up was me on acoustic research and interactions between killer whales and pilot whales. 🎵🐳 More cool videos to come soon! 🤓

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBEf...

📢 Webinar alert! I'll be presenting my PhD research as part of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust Winter Webinar series on Weds 22th Jan.

Sign up here on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/killer-wha...

Introducing "Sonic Connexions", a series of online meetups designed for casual conversations about animal bioacoustics. It is open to anyone, so join us and become part of this vibrant community!

First meetup on January 29th, 2025!

Sign up here: forms.office.com/r/qhPcMUKz6w

🧪🔉🐟🐋🦜🪳

Amazing! 🐳 Congratulations! 🥳

Check out this new paper on acoustic occurrence of killer whales around Iceland! 🎵🐳🇮🇸

Me with binoculars

Killer whale breaching

Hello Bluesky!
My name is Anna and I’m a PhD researcher at the University of Iceland and the Icelandic Orca Project. I like whales 🐳 and sound 🎵 and all things marine 🌊. I am very happy that the science community seems to have found a new platform and am looking forward to connecting with you all!

Still time to apply 🎣🐙🌊🦭

Yes, we use passive acoustic monitoring but also hydrophones deployed from the boat or recordings from tags on whales. If you happen to have any recordings from the Faroes, me and @fipsamarra.bsky.social would probably be very interested to compare them to Icelandic ones 🤓