Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Predation on Beaked Whales (Mesoplodon spp.) in the Bremer Sub-Basin, Western Australia.

Observations of killer whales (Orcinus orca) feeding on the remains of beaked whales have been previously documented; however, to date, there has been no published account of killer whales actively preying upon beaked whales. This article describes the first field observations of killer whales inter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLOS ONE
Main Authors: Rebecca Wellard, Keith Lightbody, Leila Fouda, Michelle Blewitt, David Riggs, Christine Erbe
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016
Subjects:
R
Q
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166670
https://doaj.org/article/f5f0cec277ed4c6c892ffcd7c88978f8
Description
Summary:Observations of killer whales (Orcinus orca) feeding on the remains of beaked whales have been previously documented; however, to date, there has been no published account of killer whales actively preying upon beaked whales. This article describes the first field observations of killer whales interacting with, hunting and preying upon beaked whales (Mesoplodon spp.) on four separate occasions during 2014, 2015 and 2016 in the Bremer Sub-Basin, off the south coast of Western Australia.