Minke Whales Feast Under Antarctic Ice, Study Finds
Minke Whales Feast Under Antarctic Ice, Study Finds
Their frequent gulps for krill is fastest "lunge" rate ever observed.
By James Owen
for National Geographic
Published August 13, 2014
[font size=1]A minke whale comes up to take a breath in McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.
Photograph by Norbert Wu, Minden Pictures/Corbis[/font]
Minke whales have been discovered feasting furiously under Antarctic sea ice in a hunting strategy not seen before, scientists report.
Tracked using digital tags, the whales gulped mouthfuls of krill nearly every 30 seconds-the fastest "lunge" rate ever observed in filter-feeding baleen whales, according to the new findings.
The study, published in the August 13 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology, marks the first record of Antarctic minke whales feeding under surface ice.
"In fact, it is also the first time that minke whale foraging behavior has been documented anywhere in the world using high-resolution multi-sensor digital tags," team member Jeremy Goldbogen, a marine biologist at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California, said in an email.
"Researchers have been trying to tag minke whales for years, but what these whales do underwater remains elusive due to their small size, which makes them very agile and quick" and, as a result, difficult to tag, Goldbogen said.
More:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140813-minke-whale-feeding-antarctica-animals-ocean-science/
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