{"id":914,"date":"2026-06-30T08:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T08:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/do-whales-fart\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T08:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T08:42:34","slug":"do-whales-fart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/do-whales-fart\/","title":{"rendered":"Do whales fart?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> Kertu\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years ago, 10-year-old Guy was driving along the Australian coast when he saw whales, spouting water up into the air. He was amazed. \u201cThen my brother farted, and then I wondered if whales fart,\u201d says Guy. <\/p>\n

Guy joined our host Eloise to put his question to Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Australia on this week\u2019s episode of The Conversation\u2019s Curious Kids<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

In each episode of The Conversation\u2019s Curious Kids<\/a>, a curious kid joins host Eloise to ask a top researcher their burning question. This episode is a follow-on from the episode \u201cDo whales sneeze?\u201d<\/a> in our first season. <\/p>\n

To listen to season two, follow us wherever you get your podcasts, or listen on the Yoto Player via the Discover section on the Yoto interactive audio platform for kids.<\/p>\n

You can also listen back to season one<\/a> and read lots of answers to questions sent in by children around the world in our Curious Kids series<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Got a question? Pop it in an email, or record it and send us the audio to curiouskids@theconversation.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

This season of The Conversation\u2019s Curious Kids is supported by the University of Southampton<\/a> in the UK, a world-leading research-intensive university with a global network of international students and campuses in Malaysia and Delhi.<\/em> <\/p>\n

\n

Disclosure statement<\/h2>\n

Vanessa Pirotta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/p>\n

Credits<\/h2>\n

This episode of The Conversation\u2019s Curious Kids was hosted and mixed by Eloise Stevens. The producer was Katie Flood and the executive producer was Gemma Ware. Audio clips from Finding<\/a> Nemo<\/a>, and seal pup sounds from schaarsen<\/a> and whale noise from kaekhor<\/a> via Freesound.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kertu\/Shutterstock A few years ago, 10-year-old Guy was driving along the Australian coast when he saw whales, spouting water up into the air. He was amazed. \u201cThen my brother farted, and then I wondered if whales fart,\u201d says Guy. Guy joined our host Eloise to put his question to Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}