Aerial Observation of Feeding Behavior in Four Baleen Whales: Eubalaena glacialis, Balaenoptera borealis, Megaptera novaeangliae, and Balaenoptera physalus

Abstract

Distinct behavioral differences were noted from aerial observations of four species of baleen whales (Eubalaena glacialis, right whale; Balaenoptera borealis, sei whale; Megaptera novaeangliae, humpback whale; Balaenoptera physalus, finback whale) feeding together on 30 April and 1 May 1975. The right and sei whales fed together on patches of plankton. Right whales fed steadily with mouths open in the densest areas, while the sei whale followed a faster but more erratic path through the patches, alternately opening and slowly closing its mouth with slight throat distension at each closing. Humpback and finback whales fed together on dense schools of fish associated with the patches of plankton. The humpback fed by rushing, generally from below the schools of fish, while finback feeding was by more horizontal passes sometimes characterized by sharp turns and rolls within the fish schools and often with enormous throat distension.The feeding behavior of rorquals and right whales has been described (Millais

Physical processes and zooplankton distribution in the Great South Channel : observational and numerical studies

“…Thus, we estimate that the minimum mean speed of Stars during this feeding period was 1.2±0.1 m / s. This estimate is within the upper limit of 1.5 m / s cited by Watkins and Schevill (1979) for right whales in this region. Since Stars was observed to feed throughout this period, the minimum north-south extent of the surface patch was 5.3 km.…”

Adaptations of the cetacean hyolingual apparatus for aquatic feeding and thermoregulation

“…In contrast to balaenopterids, balaenids are slow, rotund cruisers that filter a constant current of water through a mat of long, finely fringed baleen to skim dense swarms of tiny zooplankton (Watkins and Schevill, 1979;Lowry and Frost, 1984;Mayo and Marx, 1990;Lambertsen et al, 2005). Water enters through a large cranial cleft, the subrostral gap, between left and right baleen racks, flows through the oral cavity over the tongue, then flows laterally between baleen plates and passes out a gutter-like groove or depression, the orolabial sulcus, at the rear of the lower lip.…”

A behavioural framework for the evolution of feeding in predatory aquatic mammals

“…Cetaceans with relatively short and inflexible necks use ram feeding to overtake and engulf prey (figure 2d), irrespective of whether the latter consists of an individual fish, as in the case of oceanic dolphins, or entire swarms/schools of krill, copepods and forage fish, as in most baleen whales [1]. Right whales and rorquals are both ram feeders, but differ in employing this behaviour in a continuous (also known as skim feeding) and intermittent (lunge, gulp or engulfment feeding) fashion, respectively [22,30,31].…”