Killer whales foraging in deep submarine canyons off the coast of California signify a definite subpopulation that makes use of specialised looking strategies to catch marine mammals, Josh McInnes on the College of British Columbia and colleagues report March 20 within the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are present in oceans world wide, however they type separate populations, or ‘ecotypes’, which have their very own social construction, meals preferences and looking behaviors. One ecotype, referred to as transient killer whales, concentrate on looking marine mammals. This ecotype might be divided into two teams — inside coast whales that feed in shallow coastal waters, and outer coast whales that hunt in deep water — however comparatively little is thought in regards to the outer coast whales. Researchers compiled knowledge from marine mammal surveys carried out between 2006 and 2018 and whale-watching ecotours between 2014 and 2021, to analyze the foraging habits of outer coast transient killer whales round Monterey Submarine Canyon in California.
Members of this subpopulation had been solely sighted in open water and primarily preyed on California sea lions, gray whale calves and northern elephant seals. They use specialised strategies to hunt in open water, the place prey cannot simply be cornered. They typically subdued their prey by ramming it with their head or physique, and used their tail to hit or catapult sea lions into the air. The researchers recognized two principal kinds of foraging habits — distributed teams diving independently within the open water, and tightly coordinated teams foraging alongside the contours of the submarine canyons.
These outcomes recommend that the outer coast whales are a definite subpopulation that has developed specialised looking strategies to catch marine mammals on this deep-water habitat. Their distinct foraging behaviors could also be culturally transmitted from technology to technology, the authors say.
The authors add: “Transient (mammal-hunting) killer whales have been studied primarily in coastal shallow water habitats, and there may be at present little recognized relating to their habits in offshore and deep pelagic techniques. This examine highlights the complicated foraging habits and ecology of transients and the way they act as apex predators in productive deep submarine canyon techniques and the way their habits is linked to a number of marine mammal prey populations within the North Pacific Ocean.”
