Fine-scale foraging movements by fish-eating killer whales (Orcinus orca) relate to the vertical distributions and escape responses of salmonid prey (Oncorhynchus spp.)

• Published in: Movement Ecology
• Main Authors: Wright, Brianna M., Ford, John K.B., Ellis, Graeme M., Deecke, Volker B., Shapiro, Ari Daniel, Battaile, Brian C., Trites, Andrew W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2017
• Subjects: 599 Mammals; 597 Cold-blooded vertebrates; fishes; Lambda; Pacific; Killer Whale; Orca; Orcinus orca; Killer whale
• Online Access: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2702/; https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/2702/1/Deecke_FineScaleForagingMovements.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-017-0094-0

Background: We sought to quantitatively describe the fine-scale foraging behavior of northern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca), a population of fish-eating killer whales that feeds almost exclusively on Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). To reconstruct the underwater movements of these special...