Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales
In gregarious species, collective behavior maximizes individual fitness benefits while minimizing costs. Despite the relevance of behavior to conservation, the link between the robustness of behavioral patterns across populations and population health is poorly understood. We studied the collective...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Zenodo
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm57 |
id |
ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:7487610 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:7487610 2024-09-15T18:16:43+00:00 Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales Tennessen, Jennifer Holt, Marla Wright, Brianna Hanson, Brad Emmons, Candice Giles, Deborah Hogan, Jeffrey Thornton, Sheila Deecke, Volker 2022-12-27 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm57 unknown Zenodo https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm57 oai:zenodo.org:7487610 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode foraging behavior prey capture Southern Resident killer whale Northern Resident killer whale bio-logging DTAG Orcinus orca info:eu-repo/semantics/other 2022 ftzenodo https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm57 2024-07-26T16:20:21Z In gregarious species, collective behavior maximizes individual fitness benefits while minimizing costs. Despite the relevance of behavior to conservation, the link between the robustness of behavioral patterns across populations and population health is poorly understood. We studied the collective foraging behavior of two closed, sympatric populations of piscivorous killer whales, leveraging two contemporaneously-collected data sets from suction cup-attached bio-logging tags, to quantify patterns of fine-scale foraging movements and their relationships with demography. We reveal striking plasticity in collective foraging behavior between populations. Prey capture rate and foraging efficiency were greater for males in the endangered Southern Resident (SRKW) population, yet greater for females in the Northern Resident (NRKW) population. The presence of a calf (≤ 3 y) reduced the number of prey captured by adult females in both populations, with the greatest effect in SRKW, in which no mothers with calves captured prey while bearing tags. SRKW adult males with a living mother tended to capture more prey than those whose mother had died, whereas the opposite was true for NRKW adult males. Moreover, males generally tended to forage in areas with deeper bathymetry than females, and SRKW captured prey deeper than NRKW. These population-level differences in sex-specific foraging behavior challenge the existing paradigm that mothers are disproportionate foragers in gregarious killer whales, underscoring that an endangered population is employing a potentially unstable collective foraging strategy mismatched to recovery. Thus, our study provides a mechanistic link between fine-scale, collective foraging behavior and population health in an apex marine predator. Funding provided by: Fisheries and Oceans Canada Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000041 Award Number: Funding provided by: University of Cumbria Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007647 Award Number: Funding ... Other/Unknown Material Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale Zenodo |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Zenodo |
op_collection_id |
ftzenodo |
language |
unknown |
topic |
foraging behavior prey capture Southern Resident killer whale Northern Resident killer whale bio-logging DTAG Orcinus orca |
spellingShingle |
foraging behavior prey capture Southern Resident killer whale Northern Resident killer whale bio-logging DTAG Orcinus orca Tennessen, Jennifer Holt, Marla Wright, Brianna Hanson, Brad Emmons, Candice Giles, Deborah Hogan, Jeffrey Thornton, Sheila Deecke, Volker Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
topic_facet |
foraging behavior prey capture Southern Resident killer whale Northern Resident killer whale bio-logging DTAG Orcinus orca |
description |
In gregarious species, collective behavior maximizes individual fitness benefits while minimizing costs. Despite the relevance of behavior to conservation, the link between the robustness of behavioral patterns across populations and population health is poorly understood. We studied the collective foraging behavior of two closed, sympatric populations of piscivorous killer whales, leveraging two contemporaneously-collected data sets from suction cup-attached bio-logging tags, to quantify patterns of fine-scale foraging movements and their relationships with demography. We reveal striking plasticity in collective foraging behavior between populations. Prey capture rate and foraging efficiency were greater for males in the endangered Southern Resident (SRKW) population, yet greater for females in the Northern Resident (NRKW) population. The presence of a calf (≤ 3 y) reduced the number of prey captured by adult females in both populations, with the greatest effect in SRKW, in which no mothers with calves captured prey while bearing tags. SRKW adult males with a living mother tended to capture more prey than those whose mother had died, whereas the opposite was true for NRKW adult males. Moreover, males generally tended to forage in areas with deeper bathymetry than females, and SRKW captured prey deeper than NRKW. These population-level differences in sex-specific foraging behavior challenge the existing paradigm that mothers are disproportionate foragers in gregarious killer whales, underscoring that an endangered population is employing a potentially unstable collective foraging strategy mismatched to recovery. Thus, our study provides a mechanistic link between fine-scale, collective foraging behavior and population health in an apex marine predator. Funding provided by: Fisheries and Oceans Canada Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000041 Award Number: Funding provided by: University of Cumbria Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007647 Award Number: Funding ... |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Tennessen, Jennifer Holt, Marla Wright, Brianna Hanson, Brad Emmons, Candice Giles, Deborah Hogan, Jeffrey Thornton, Sheila Deecke, Volker |
author_facet |
Tennessen, Jennifer Holt, Marla Wright, Brianna Hanson, Brad Emmons, Candice Giles, Deborah Hogan, Jeffrey Thornton, Sheila Deecke, Volker |
author_sort |
Tennessen, Jennifer |
title |
Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
title_short |
Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
title_full |
Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
title_fullStr |
Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
title_sort |
divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales |
publisher |
Zenodo |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm57 |
genre |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
op_relation |
https://zenodo.org/communities/dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm57 oai:zenodo.org:7487610 |
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.0gb5mkm57 |
_version_ |
1810454726687326208 |