Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations?
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are important predators in high latitudes, where their ecological impact is mediated through their movements. We used satellite telemetry to provide the first evidence of migration for killer whales, characterized by fast (more than 12 km h−1, 6.5 knots) and direct movem...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3297399 2023-05-15T13:41:13+02:00 Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? Durban, J. W. Pitman, R. L. 2012-04-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297399 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22031725 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297399 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22031725 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875 This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Marine Biology Text 2012 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875 2013-09-04T03:46:30Z Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are important predators in high latitudes, where their ecological impact is mediated through their movements. We used satellite telemetry to provide the first evidence of migration for killer whales, characterized by fast (more than 12 km h−1, 6.5 knots) and direct movements away from Antarctic waters by six of 12 type B killer whales tagged when foraging near the Antarctic Peninsula, including all tags transmitting for more than three weeks. Tags on five of these whales revealed consistent movements to subtropical waters (30–37° S) off Uruguay and Brazil, in surface water temperatures ranging from −1.9°C to 24.2°C; one 109 day track documented a non-stop round trip of almost 9400 km (5075 nmi) in just 42 days. Although whales travelled slower in the warmest waters, there was no obvious interruption in swim speed or direction to indicate calving or prolonged feeding. Furthermore, these movements were aseasonal, initiating over 80 days between February and April; one whale returned to within 40 km of the tagging site at the onset of the austral winter in June. We suggest that these movements may represent periodic maintenance migrations, with warmer waters allowing skin regeneration without the high cost of heat loss: a physiological constraint that may also affect other whales. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Orca Orcinus orca PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Austral The Antarctic Uruguay Biology Letters 8 2 274 277 |
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English |
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Marine Biology |
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Marine Biology Durban, J. W. Pitman, R. L. Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
topic_facet |
Marine Biology |
description |
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are important predators in high latitudes, where their ecological impact is mediated through their movements. We used satellite telemetry to provide the first evidence of migration for killer whales, characterized by fast (more than 12 km h−1, 6.5 knots) and direct movements away from Antarctic waters by six of 12 type B killer whales tagged when foraging near the Antarctic Peninsula, including all tags transmitting for more than three weeks. Tags on five of these whales revealed consistent movements to subtropical waters (30–37° S) off Uruguay and Brazil, in surface water temperatures ranging from −1.9°C to 24.2°C; one 109 day track documented a non-stop round trip of almost 9400 km (5075 nmi) in just 42 days. Although whales travelled slower in the warmest waters, there was no obvious interruption in swim speed or direction to indicate calving or prolonged feeding. Furthermore, these movements were aseasonal, initiating over 80 days between February and April; one whale returned to within 40 km of the tagging site at the onset of the austral winter in June. We suggest that these movements may represent periodic maintenance migrations, with warmer waters allowing skin regeneration without the high cost of heat loss: a physiological constraint that may also affect other whales. |
format |
Text |
author |
Durban, J. W. Pitman, R. L. |
author_facet |
Durban, J. W. Pitman, R. L. |
author_sort |
Durban, J. W. |
title |
Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
title_short |
Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
title_full |
Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
title_fullStr |
Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
title_sort |
antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297399 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22031725 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875 |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Austral The Antarctic Uruguay |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Austral The Antarctic Uruguay |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Orca Orcinus orca |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Orca Orcinus orca |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297399 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22031725 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875 |
op_rights |
This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
274 |
op_container_end_page |
277 |
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1766147178302013440 |