Sperm whales may team up and hunt collaboratively, scientists have advised.
A US research team used high tech tags to glance some of the giant sea mammals’ extraordinary hunting behavior. This tracking showed the way the whales travelled together in groups, but when they hunted, each whale “varied its role” inside the group. The analysis team declared the observations at the Sea Sciences meeting in Portland, Oregon. Professor Bruce Chum from the Hatfield Sea Science Center in Oregon led the study.
It could be that every individual takes it in turns to do the most physiologically demanding task Professor Bruce Buddy , Hatfield Sea Science Center “The unique element about this report is this new piece of equipment,” he said. “We have [a tag with] GPS precision for the whales’ movements and a time and depth record of their dives.
“And, for the 1st time, we have tagged one or two animals in the same group.” Professor Buddy showed tracking proof of the whales sticking tightly together over a few months – swimming round the Gulf of Mexico. But as the great mammals made their dives – hunting squid at depths reaching more than 1,000m – their behavior sundry with each dive. “We can see that they’re basically changing their role over time,” he revealed. “And we are speculating the animals are herding a ball of squid.” he claimed that some whales seemed to guard the base of this “bait ball”, forestalling the prey from sinking to unreachable depths, while other animals in the group made use of the center of the ball. “It might be that every individual takes it in turns to do the most physiologically demanding task – the deep dive,” he revealed. Professor Hal Whitehead, an analyst from Dalhousie College in Nova Scotia, Canada, who studies whales, was wowed by the information, but announced the idea that whales could be herding a ball of squid may be a little “far-fetched”.
Dr Pal indicated that prior research had shown this kind of herding behavior in dolphins. In that case, scientists were in a position to capture photos of the dolphins herding a ball of fish, and seeming to take turns to dive thru the ball for a mouthful. Dr Pal explained that, with sperm whales, which dive to great depths, it was much more tricky to capture the behavior. “Our next step will be to image the squid at the same time as tracking the whales,” he claimed. “And to tag more members of the same group so we can track their movements.”.