Feeding rates of Cetacea

• Main Author: Sergeant, David E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: John Griegs Boktrykkeri 1969
• Subjects: Ivlev; Harbour porpoise; Killer Whale; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/50739/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/50739/1/2988.pdf

A variety of porpoises and dolphins of the superfamily Delphinoidea, ranging through three magnitudes of weight from the harbour porpoise Phoconea to the killer whale Orcinus, have now been kept in captivity. From aquarium records of body weights and weights of food ingested, daily food consumption can be determined. Following IVLEV (1961) I shall call this index the daily ration. There is no suitable term in the literature for the index the daily ratio expressed as percent of body weight which I shall therefore call the feeding rate. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to discover the feeding rates of whales which are too large to have yet been kept in oceanaria.