Cheap gulp foraging of a giga-predator enables efficient exploitation of sparse prey.

• Main Authors: Videsen, Simone, Simon, Malene, Christiansen, Fredrik, Friedlaender, Ari, Goldbogen, Jeremy, Malte, Hans, Segre, Paolo, Wang, Tobias, Johnson, Mark, Madsen, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2023
• Subjects: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Feeding Behavior; Humpback Whale; Energy Metabolism; Food; Rorqual
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1476k209

The giant rorqual whales are believed to have a massive food turnover driven by a high-intake lunge feeding style aptly described as the worlds largest biomechanical action. This high-drag feeding behavior is thought to limit dive times and constrain rorquals to target only the densest prey patches,...