A neonate long-finned pilot whale surfaces in echelon position next to a killer whale (adult female IS069) on June 20, 2023.

The short-finned pilot whale is known to be highly playful and social. It typically travels in pods of 10–30 members, usually family, but has also been observed moving in groups of several hundred.

Photo: Xinhua A worker feeds the short-finned pilot whale "Haili" at Sanya Haichang Animal Conservation Center in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Aug. 2, 2024.

Volunteers help a short-finned pilot whale adapt to floats attached to her body at Sanya Haichang Animal Conservation Center in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, July 20, 2024.

Whale stranding, also referred to as beaching, occurs when dolphins and whales strand themselves on beaches, often resulting in the animal’s death. Strandings can occur for these species alone or in ...

The stranded short-finned pilot whale Haitang is transported to a research ship on Saturday and returns to sea at 6:15 am on Sunday. [Photo by Wang Chenglong/For chinadaily.com.cn] After nearly ...

The rescue mission required a huge commitment of resources due to the whale’s sheer size. Known for their round foreheads and short snouts, adult short-finned pilot whales are typically 4-7 meters ...

Short-finned pilot whales are national second-class protected wild animals. On Jan 3, a short-finned pilot whale was found stranded in Haitang Bay, Sanya city, with obvious trauma in many parts of ...

Pilot whales, which can be short or long-finned, are known for being social animals, and tend to live in large schools of hundreds of whales separated into close-knit pods of 10 to 20 individuals ...

Pilot whale strandings have occurred before. Pictured: a string of dead pilot whales line the beach at Tupuangi Beach in New Zealand’s Chatham Archipelago in October last year. Tamzin Henderson/AP ...

For 21 minutes on August 12, 2021, cetologists (marine biologists that study whales and dolphins), observed three orcas interacting with a long-finned pilot whale calf. This trio of killer whales ...

He said: “The identification of this short-finned pilot whale in UK waters adds to the growing evidence of a clear trend of cetacean life being affected by climate change, part of a wider impact ...