Szabo A, Bejder L, Warick H, van Aswegen M, Friedlaender A S, Goldbogen J, Kendall-Bar J M, Leunissen E M, Angot M, Gough W T
Alaska Whale Foundation, Petersburg, PO Box 1927, AK, USA.
Marine Mammal Research Program, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Aug 21;11(8):240328. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240328. eCollection 2024 Aug.
Several animal species use tools for foraging; however, very few manufacture and/or modify those tools. Humpback whales, which manufacture bubble-net tools while foraging, are among these rare species. Using animal-borne tag and unoccupied aerial system technologies, we examine bubble-nets manufactured by solitary humpback whales () in Southeast Alaska while feeding on krill. We demonstrate that the nets consist of internally tangential rings and suggest that whales actively control the number of rings in a net, net size and depth and the horizontal spacing between neighbouring bubbles. We argue that whales regulate these net structural elements to increase per-lunge prey intake by, on average, sevenfold. We measured breath rate and swimming and lunge kinematics to show that the resulting increase in prey density does not increase energetic expenditure. Our results provide a novel insight into how bubble-net tools manufactured by solitary foraging humpback whales act to increase foraging efficiency.
有几种动物会使用工具觅食；然而，很少有动物会制造和/或改造这些工具。座头鲸在觅食时会制造气泡网工具，它们就属于这些珍稀物种。利用动物携带标签和无人机系统技术，我们研究了阿拉斯加东南部独自觅食磷虾的座头鲸所制造的气泡网。我们证明这些网由内部相切的圆环组成，并表明鲸鱼会主动控制网中的圆环数量、网的大小和深度以及相邻气泡之间的水平间距。我们认为鲸鱼通过将每次猛扑的猎物摄入量平均提高七倍来调节这些网的结构要素。我们测量了呼吸频率、游泳和猛扑的运动学特征，以表明猎物密度的增加并不会导致能量消耗增加。我们的研究结果为独自觅食的座头鲸制造的气泡网工具如何提高觅食效率提供了全新的见解。
