Dara Orbach

Sex in the SEAtaceans: Mating Behaviors and Reproductive Anatomy of Cetaceans

About the Speaker

Dr. Dara Orbach is an Assistant Professor of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. After completing 2 bachelor degrees and a masters degree in her native Canada, she completed her PhD at Texas A&M University at Galveston, where she began researching the sex lives of cetaceans. Dara has become renowned for her innovative research exploring and integrating the reproductive anatomy and mating behaviors of a variety of marine mammal species around the world, and for mentoring females in science. Dara has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles on the genitalia or mating patterns of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. She is a co-editor on a forthcoming book entitled Sex in Cetaceans. Her research has been featured in popular science articles, blogs, podcasts, books, documentaries (e.g., Sex in the Wild), and media (e.g., Saturday Night Live, Stephen Colbert show). In her spare time, Dara enjoys traveling and being by the ocean. 

Sex in the SEAtaceans: Mating Behaviors and Reproductive Anatomy of Cetaceans

Due to logistical challenges of observation, the mating behaviors of most species of cetaceans remain undocumented and enigmatic. However, unique ecological features and advances in technologies like drones have recently enabled repeated documentation of mating events in various whale, dolphin, and porpoise species globally. Cetaceans also have unusual genital morphologies that have closely co-evolved between the sexes and co-evolved with mating behavior. The integration of behavioral and reproductive morphological data are presented in several species to highlight the diversity and unique sex lives of cetaceans.