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Hunt To Study Cetacean Health

Elizabeth Grisham
Mason biology professor Kathleen Hunt is part of a team of researchers working to understand how whale foraging and reproduction changes over time. Photo courtesy of Northern Arizona University

Kathleen Hunt, Assistant Professor, Biology, is set to receive funding for the project: “From Stress To Health: Evaluating Linkages From Comprehensive Physiological Stress Panels to Cetacean Health.”

Hunt and her collaborators aim to better characterize the links between physiological stress and health in free-living cetaceans. 

The researchers plan to do this by applying new multivariate stress panels and health panels in an ongoing long-term study they are conducting. That study focuses on the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) sub-population of Eastern North Pacific gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus).

The scientists hold that by assessing and integrating these additional biomarkers of stress and health with their long-term dataset and existing statistical framework, they will clarify the nature, direction, and strength of linkages between physiological stress and health. 

Hunt is set to receive $269,317 from the Office of Naval Research for this study. Funding began in Aug. 2024 and will end in late July 2027.

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