Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales
Closely related species are expected to diverge in foraging strategy, reflecting the evolutionary drive to optimize foraging performance. The most speciose cetacean genus, Mesoplodon, comprises beaked whales with little diversity in external morphology or diet, and overlapping distributions. Moreove...
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ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:6536875 2024-09-15T18:18:30+00:00 Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales Visser, Fleur 2022-05-10 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9673 unknown Zenodo https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9673 oai:zenodo.org:6536875 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode Mesoplodon bidens Ziphiiae niche differentiation Echolocation Deep-sea foraging ecology Pace-of-life syndrome info:eu-repo/semantics/other 2022 ftzenodo https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9673 2024-07-25T12:28:57Z Closely related species are expected to diverge in foraging strategy, reflecting the evolutionary drive to optimize foraging performance. The most speciose cetacean genus, Mesoplodon, comprises beaked whales with little diversity in external morphology or diet, and overlapping distributions. Moreover, the few studied species of beaked whales (Ziphiidae) show very similar foraging styles with slow, energy-conserving movement during long, deep foraging dives. This raises the question of what factors drive their speciation. Using data from animal-attached tags and aerial imagery, we tested the hypothesis that two similar-sized mesoplodonts, Sowerby's(Mesoplodon bidens) and Blainville's (Mesoplodon densirostris) beaked whales, exploit a similar low-energy niche. We show that, compared with the low-energy strategist Blainville's beaked whale, AQ6 Sowerby's beaked whale lives in the fast lane. While targeting a similar mesopelagic/bathypelagic foraging zone, they consistently swim and hunt faster, perform shorter deep dives, and echolocate at a faster rate and with higher frequency clicks. Further, extensive nearsurface travel between deep dives challenges the interpretation of beaked whale shallow inter-foraging dives as a management strategy for decompression sickness. The distinctively higher frequency echolocation clicks do not hold apparent foraging benefits. Instead, we argue that a high-speed foraging style influences dive duration and echolocation behaviour, enabling access to a distinct prey population. Our results demonstrate that beaked whales exploit a broader diversity of deep-sea foraging and energetic niches than hitherto suspected. The marked deviation of Sowerby's beaked whales from the typical ziphiid foraging strategy has potential implications for their response to anthropogenic sounds, which appears to be strongly behaviourally driven in other ziphiids. Funding provided by: Office of Naval Research Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000006 Award Number: Funding provided ... Other/Unknown Material Mesoplodon bidens Sowerby's beaked whale Zenodo |
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op_collection_id |
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topic |
Mesoplodon bidens Ziphiiae niche differentiation Echolocation Deep-sea foraging ecology Pace-of-life syndrome |
spellingShingle |
Mesoplodon bidens Ziphiiae niche differentiation Echolocation Deep-sea foraging ecology Pace-of-life syndrome Visser, Fleur Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
topic_facet |
Mesoplodon bidens Ziphiiae niche differentiation Echolocation Deep-sea foraging ecology Pace-of-life syndrome |
description |
Closely related species are expected to diverge in foraging strategy, reflecting the evolutionary drive to optimize foraging performance. The most speciose cetacean genus, Mesoplodon, comprises beaked whales with little diversity in external morphology or diet, and overlapping distributions. Moreover, the few studied species of beaked whales (Ziphiidae) show very similar foraging styles with slow, energy-conserving movement during long, deep foraging dives. This raises the question of what factors drive their speciation. Using data from animal-attached tags and aerial imagery, we tested the hypothesis that two similar-sized mesoplodonts, Sowerby's(Mesoplodon bidens) and Blainville's (Mesoplodon densirostris) beaked whales, exploit a similar low-energy niche. We show that, compared with the low-energy strategist Blainville's beaked whale, AQ6 Sowerby's beaked whale lives in the fast lane. While targeting a similar mesopelagic/bathypelagic foraging zone, they consistently swim and hunt faster, perform shorter deep dives, and echolocate at a faster rate and with higher frequency clicks. Further, extensive nearsurface travel between deep dives challenges the interpretation of beaked whale shallow inter-foraging dives as a management strategy for decompression sickness. The distinctively higher frequency echolocation clicks do not hold apparent foraging benefits. Instead, we argue that a high-speed foraging style influences dive duration and echolocation behaviour, enabling access to a distinct prey population. Our results demonstrate that beaked whales exploit a broader diversity of deep-sea foraging and energetic niches than hitherto suspected. The marked deviation of Sowerby's beaked whales from the typical ziphiid foraging strategy has potential implications for their response to anthropogenic sounds, which appears to be strongly behaviourally driven in other ziphiids. Funding provided by: Office of Naval Research Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000006 Award Number: Funding provided ... |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Visser, Fleur |
author_facet |
Visser, Fleur |
author_sort |
Visser, Fleur |
title |
Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
title_short |
Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
title_full |
Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
title_fullStr |
Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
title_sort |
sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales |
publisher |
Zenodo |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9673 |
genre |
Mesoplodon bidens Sowerby's beaked whale |
genre_facet |
Mesoplodon bidens Sowerby's beaked whale |
op_relation |
https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9673 oai:zenodo.org:6536875 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sj3tx9673 |
_version_ |
1810456619760222208 |