Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters?
North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) feed during the spring and early summer in marine waters off the northeast coast of North America. Their food primarily consists of planktonic copepods, Calanus finmarchicus, which they consume in large numbers by ram filter feeding. The coastal wate...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5312017 2023-05-15T15:48:00+02:00 Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? Cronin, Thomas W. Fasick, Jeffry I. Schweikert, Lorian E. Johnsen, Sönke Kezmoh, Lorren J. Baumgartner, Mark F. 2017-04-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312017/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28193812 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312017/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28193812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067 © 2017 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Articles Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067 2018-04-08T00:06:46Z North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) feed during the spring and early summer in marine waters off the northeast coast of North America. Their food primarily consists of planktonic copepods, Calanus finmarchicus, which they consume in large numbers by ram filter feeding. The coastal waters where these whales forage are turbid, but they successfully locate copepod swarms during the day at depths exceeding 100 m, where light is very dim and copepod patches may be difficult to see. Using models of E. glacialis visual sensitivity together with measurements of light in waters near Cape Cod where they feed and of light attenuation by living copepods in seawater, we evaluated the potential for visual foraging by these whales. Our results suggest that vision may be useful for finding copepod patches, particularly if E. glacialis searches overhead for silhouetted masses or layers of copepods. This should permit the whales to locate C. finmarchicus visually throughout most daylight hours at depths throughout their foraging range. Looking laterally, the whales might also be able to see copepod patches at short range near the surface. Text Calanus finmarchicus Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic Copepods PubMed Central (PMC) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372 1717 20160067 |
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Articles Cronin, Thomas W. Fasick, Jeffry I. Schweikert, Lorian E. Johnsen, Sönke Kezmoh, Lorren J. Baumgartner, Mark F. Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
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description |
North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) feed during the spring and early summer in marine waters off the northeast coast of North America. Their food primarily consists of planktonic copepods, Calanus finmarchicus, which they consume in large numbers by ram filter feeding. The coastal waters where these whales forage are turbid, but they successfully locate copepod swarms during the day at depths exceeding 100 m, where light is very dim and copepod patches may be difficult to see. Using models of E. glacialis visual sensitivity together with measurements of light in waters near Cape Cod where they feed and of light attenuation by living copepods in seawater, we evaluated the potential for visual foraging by these whales. Our results suggest that vision may be useful for finding copepod patches, particularly if E. glacialis searches overhead for silhouetted masses or layers of copepods. This should permit the whales to locate C. finmarchicus visually throughout most daylight hours at depths throughout their foraging range. Looking laterally, the whales might also be able to see copepod patches at short range near the surface. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cronin, Thomas W. Fasick, Jeffry I. Schweikert, Lorian E. Johnsen, Sönke Kezmoh, Lorren J. Baumgartner, Mark F. |
author_facet |
Cronin, Thomas W. Fasick, Jeffry I. Schweikert, Lorian E. Johnsen, Sönke Kezmoh, Lorren J. Baumgartner, Mark F. |
author_sort |
Cronin, Thomas W. |
title |
Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
title_short |
Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
title_full |
Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
title_fullStr |
Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
title_sort |
coping with copepods: do right whales (eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters? |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312017/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28193812 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067 |
genre |
Calanus finmarchicus Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic Copepods |
genre_facet |
Calanus finmarchicus Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic Copepods |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312017/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28193812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067 |
op_rights |
© 2017 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
372 |
container_issue |
1717 |
container_start_page |
20160067 |
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1766382986566041600 |