From a calf's perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds
Jennifer E Tackaberry1,2, David E Cade3, Jeremy A Goldbogen3
1Vertebrate Ecology Lab, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Moss Landing, CA, United States of America.
Peerj
|March 18, 2020
Summary
This study used animal-borne video tags to document humpback whale nursing behavior on feeding grounds for the first time. Calves showed increased movement during nursing, while mothers showed decreased movement, offering insights into lactation energetics.
Area of Science:
- Marine Mammal Biology
- Animal Behavior
- Bioenergetics
Background:
- Nursing is crucial for mammal growth but difficult to study in wild cetaceans due to its submerged nature.
- Humpback whale nursing has been observed on breeding grounds, but not previously studied on feeding grounds.
Purpose of the Study:
- To document humpback whale nursing events on feeding grounds using animal-borne technology.
- To characterize the movement patterns of calves and mothers during nursing events.
- To understand the energetic implications of nursing in relation to foraging.
Main Methods:
- Instrumented three humpback whale calves and two mothers with combined video and 3D-accelerometer data loggers (CATS).
- Manually analyzed animal-borne video data to identify and time nursing events.
- Utilized mixed-effects models to analyze accelerometer data (ODBA, FSR) during nursing and non-nursing periods.
Main Results:
- Successfully documented 11 nursing events, averaging 23 seconds, occurring at depths between 4.1-64.4 meters.
- Calves exhibited higher overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) and fluke-stroke rate (FSR) during nursing.
- Mothers displayed lower ODBA and reduced FSR during nursing events compared to non-nursing periods.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first characterization of accelerometer data for humpback whale nursing, confirmed by video tags.
- Nursing events on feeding grounds are closely linked to maternal foraging but not predictable by calf-mother proximity alone.
- These findings are crucial for understanding the energetic costs of lactation in foraging humpback whales.
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