First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) have been documented preying on either fish or marine mammals in several regions, suggesting that this odontocete species has the ability to specialize on different types of prey. Off Norway, killer whales have been shown to rely on the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus)...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5493372 2023-05-15T17:03:35+02:00 First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters Jourdain, Eve Vongraven, Dag Bisther, Anna Karoliussen, Richard 2017-06-30 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5493372/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28666015 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180099 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5493372/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28666015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180099 © 2017 Jourdain et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180099 2017-07-23T00:03:46Z Killer whales (Orcinus orca) have been documented preying on either fish or marine mammals in several regions, suggesting that this odontocete species has the ability to specialize on different types of prey. Off Norway, killer whales have been shown to rely on the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) as a main prey resource. Infrequent observations have revealed seals as an additional component of their diet, yet the extent of predation on marine mammals has remained largely unknown. Here, we present the findings of 29 years of photographic and observational data on seal-feeding killer whale groups identified in Norwegian coastal waters. Four groups have been observed preying and feeding on seals over several years, taking both harbor (Phoca vitulina) and grey (Halichoerus grypus) seals. These stable groups are shown to adopt small group sizes, were typically observed in near-shore areas and were not encountered on herring wintering grounds. Behavioral and social traits adopted by these groups are similar to those of pinniped-feeding killer whales from other regions. The potential ecological reasons and the extent of such prey specializations are discussed. Text Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Phoca vitulina Killer whale PubMed Central (PMC) Norway PLOS ONE 12 6 e0180099 |
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Research Article Jourdain, Eve Vongraven, Dag Bisther, Anna Karoliussen, Richard First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters |
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Research Article |
description |
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) have been documented preying on either fish or marine mammals in several regions, suggesting that this odontocete species has the ability to specialize on different types of prey. Off Norway, killer whales have been shown to rely on the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) as a main prey resource. Infrequent observations have revealed seals as an additional component of their diet, yet the extent of predation on marine mammals has remained largely unknown. Here, we present the findings of 29 years of photographic and observational data on seal-feeding killer whale groups identified in Norwegian coastal waters. Four groups have been observed preying and feeding on seals over several years, taking both harbor (Phoca vitulina) and grey (Halichoerus grypus) seals. These stable groups are shown to adopt small group sizes, were typically observed in near-shore areas and were not encountered on herring wintering grounds. Behavioral and social traits adopted by these groups are similar to those of pinniped-feeding killer whales from other regions. The potential ecological reasons and the extent of such prey specializations are discussed. |
format |
Text |
author |
Jourdain, Eve Vongraven, Dag Bisther, Anna Karoliussen, Richard |
author_facet |
Jourdain, Eve Vongraven, Dag Bisther, Anna Karoliussen, Richard |
author_sort |
Jourdain, Eve |
title |
First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters |
title_short |
First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters |
title_full |
First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters |
title_fullStr |
First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters |
title_full_unstemmed |
First longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Norwegian coastal waters |
title_sort |
first longitudinal study of seal-feeding killer whales (orcinus orca) in norwegian coastal waters |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5493372/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28666015 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180099 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Phoca vitulina Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Phoca vitulina Killer whale |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5493372/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28666015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180099 |
op_rights |
© 2017 Jourdain et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180099 |
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12 |
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6 |
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e0180099 |
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