News Animals

Counting the breaths of wild porpoises reveals their revved-up metabolism

In Danish waters, these small cetaceans have metabolic rates more than double those of humans

harbor porpoise

JUST BREATHE  A method that tracks harbor porpoises’ breathing helped scientists verify claims of high energy needs in the free-swimming mammals.

Peter Verhoog

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

By counting harbor porpoise breaths, researchers have come up with a new way to judge the animals’ hard-to-measure metabolism.