APPARENT LATERALIZED BEHAVIOR IN GRAY WHALES FEEDING OFF THE CENTRAL BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST |
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Authors: | Becky L.,Woodward Jeremy P.,Winn &dagger |
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Affiliation: | Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, U.S.A. E-mail:; School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | A digital acoustic recording tag was used to examine the 3‐D orientation of gray whales feeding along the central British Columbia coast. A total of 96 feeding dives were recorded from six different whales. More than half (53.1%) of the whales' bottom time was spent rolled at an angle greater than 45°. Whales rolled an average of 2.9 times per feeding dive, and rolling behavior was often accompanied by a negative pitch angle. Out of 282 recorded rolls, 274 (97.2%) were to the right. Likewise, 98.5% of the total time spent rolled at an angle greater than 45° was spent rolled to the right. The gray whales in this study showed a significant right‐side bias on both an individual (P≤ 0.009) and group level (P < 0.001). Based on the findings of this study and previous reports of uneven baleen wear ( Kasuya and Rice 1970 ), it is proposed that gray whales exhibit a population‐wide right‐side rolling bias similar in character to the 90/10 split of right handedness in humans. |
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Keywords: | gray whale Eschrichtius robustus DTAG tagging feeding behavior diving lateralized behavior |
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