Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night
Herring-eating killer whales debilitate herring with underwater tail slaps and likely herd herring into tighter schools using a feeding-specific low-frequency pulsed call (‘herding’ call). Feeding on herring may be dependent upon daylight, as the whales use their white underside to help herd herring...
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ftdeakinunifig:oai:figshare.com:article/20799418 2024-09-09T19:44:14+00:00 Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night Gaëtan Richard Olga A Filatova Filipa IP Samarra Ivan D Fedutin Marc Lammers Patrick J Miller 2017-02-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30110048 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Icelandic_herring-eating_killer_whales_feed_at_night/20799418 unknown http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30110048 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Icelandic_herring-eating_killer_whales_feed_at_night/20799418 All Rights Reserved Zoology not elsewhere classified Killer Whale Sound Production Humpback Whale Acoustic Behaviour Finless Porpoise School of Life and Environmental Sciences 3109 Zoology 3103 Ecology Text Journal contribution 2017 ftdeakinunifig 2024-06-20T00:57:43Z Herring-eating killer whales debilitate herring with underwater tail slaps and likely herd herring into tighter schools using a feeding-specific low-frequency pulsed call (‘herding’ call). Feeding on herring may be dependent upon daylight, as the whales use their white underside to help herd herring; however, feeding at night has not been investigated. The production of feeding-specific sounds provides an opportunity to use passive acoustic monitoring to investigate feeding behaviour at different times of day. We compared the acoustic behaviour of killer whales between day and night, using an autonomous recorder deployed in Iceland during winter. Based upon acoustic detection of underwater tail slaps used to feed upon herring we found that killer whales fed both at night and day: they spent 50% of their time at night and 73% of daytime feeding. Interestingly, there was a significant diel variation in acoustic behaviour. Herding calls were significantly associated with underwater tail slap rate and were recorded significantly more often at night, suggesting that in low-light conditions killer whales rely more on acoustics to herd herring. Communicative sounds were also related to underwater tail slap rate and produced at different rates during day and night. The capability to adapt feeding behaviour to different light conditions may be particularly relevant for predator species occurring in high latitudes during winter, when light availability is limited. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale Iceland Killer Whale Killer whale DRO - Deakin Research Online |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DRO - Deakin Research Online |
op_collection_id |
ftdeakinunifig |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Zoology not elsewhere classified Killer Whale Sound Production Humpback Whale Acoustic Behaviour Finless Porpoise School of Life and Environmental Sciences 3109 Zoology 3103 Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Zoology not elsewhere classified Killer Whale Sound Production Humpback Whale Acoustic Behaviour Finless Porpoise School of Life and Environmental Sciences 3109 Zoology 3103 Ecology Gaëtan Richard Olga A Filatova Filipa IP Samarra Ivan D Fedutin Marc Lammers Patrick J Miller Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
topic_facet |
Zoology not elsewhere classified Killer Whale Sound Production Humpback Whale Acoustic Behaviour Finless Porpoise School of Life and Environmental Sciences 3109 Zoology 3103 Ecology |
description |
Herring-eating killer whales debilitate herring with underwater tail slaps and likely herd herring into tighter schools using a feeding-specific low-frequency pulsed call (‘herding’ call). Feeding on herring may be dependent upon daylight, as the whales use their white underside to help herd herring; however, feeding at night has not been investigated. The production of feeding-specific sounds provides an opportunity to use passive acoustic monitoring to investigate feeding behaviour at different times of day. We compared the acoustic behaviour of killer whales between day and night, using an autonomous recorder deployed in Iceland during winter. Based upon acoustic detection of underwater tail slaps used to feed upon herring we found that killer whales fed both at night and day: they spent 50% of their time at night and 73% of daytime feeding. Interestingly, there was a significant diel variation in acoustic behaviour. Herding calls were significantly associated with underwater tail slap rate and were recorded significantly more often at night, suggesting that in low-light conditions killer whales rely more on acoustics to herd herring. Communicative sounds were also related to underwater tail slap rate and produced at different rates during day and night. The capability to adapt feeding behaviour to different light conditions may be particularly relevant for predator species occurring in high latitudes during winter, when light availability is limited. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gaëtan Richard Olga A Filatova Filipa IP Samarra Ivan D Fedutin Marc Lammers Patrick J Miller |
author_facet |
Gaëtan Richard Olga A Filatova Filipa IP Samarra Ivan D Fedutin Marc Lammers Patrick J Miller |
author_sort |
Gaëtan Richard |
title |
Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
title_short |
Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
title_full |
Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
title_fullStr |
Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
title_full_unstemmed |
Icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
title_sort |
icelandic herring-eating killer whales feed at night |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30110048 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Icelandic_herring-eating_killer_whales_feed_at_night/20799418 |
genre |
Humpback Whale Iceland Killer Whale Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Iceland Killer Whale Killer whale |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30110048 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Icelandic_herring-eating_killer_whales_feed_at_night/20799418 |
op_rights |
All Rights Reserved |
_version_ |
1809913961457385472 |