Millien Virginie, Stafiej Nicole, Félix Fernando, Guzman Hector M
Department of Biology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada.
Museo de Ballenas, Av. Enríquez Gallo S/N, Salinas, Ecuador.
Sci Rep. 2025 Feb 1;15(1):3989. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-87489-4.
Humpback whales, a species of baleen whale occurring in all oceans globally, undergo seasonal migration between their breeding grounds in tropical warm waters and high latitude feeding grounds. Using multiple years of satellite tracking data, we modeled the effect of oceanic conditions on the movement behaviour of 42 humpback whales belonging to the Southeastern Pacific population (also known as Breeding Stock G) during their migration from breeding grounds in Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador to feeding grounds in waters around the Antarctic Peninsula. We report evidence that during their migration, humpback whales engage in a movement behaviour frequently associated with feeding, and that this behaviour was more likely to occur in relatively more productive waters. We show that whales partly rely on cues they perceive in their immediate environment to initiate their southward migration, but also on their memory of oceanic conditions on their feeding grounds, timing their arrival with the complete melting of sea ice which triggers a bloom of krill in the Antarctic Ocean. Overall, our findings suggest that humpback whales integrate information they gather from their immediate environment to predict the oceanic conditions at distant locations and adjust the timing of their migration, maximizing their interaction with their preys. However, it is unclear if humpback whales will fully succeed in tracking their preys in a rapidly changing climate and ensure the long-term persistence of the species.
座头鲸是一种在全球所有海洋中都有分布的须鲸，它们会在热带温暖水域的繁殖地和高纬度的觅食地之间进行季节性迁徙。利用多年的卫星跟踪数据，我们对海洋条件对42头属于东南太平洋种群（也称为繁殖群G）的座头鲸在从哥斯达黎加、巴拿马和厄瓜多尔的繁殖地迁徙到南极半岛周围水域的觅食地过程中的移动行为的影响进行了建模。我们报告的证据表明，座头鲸在迁徙过程中会表现出一种经常与觅食相关的移动行为，而且这种行为更有可能发生在生产力相对较高的水域。我们发现，鲸鱼部分依赖于它们在周围环境中感知到的线索来启动向南的迁徙，但也依赖于它们对觅食地海洋条件的记忆，在海冰完全融化引发南极海洋磷虾大量繁殖时准时到达。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，座头鲸整合它们从周围环境中收集到的信息，以预测遥远地点的海洋条件并调整迁徙时间，从而最大限度地增加与猎物的互动。然而，尚不清楚座头鲸在快速变化的气候中能否完全成功地追踪它们的猎物并确保该物种的长期存续。
