Largest whale's acrobatic ambush
Blue whales perform underwater acrobatics to attack their prey from below, scientists have found.
The massive mammals are known for lunge-feeding; gulping up to 100 tonnes of krill-filled water in less than 10 seconds.
Using suction cup tags, US researchers have recorded the surprising manoeuvrability of the giants.
They found that the whales roll 360 degrees in order to orientate themselves for a surprise attack.
The results are published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters by Dr Jeremy Goldbogen and colleagues for the Cascadia Research Collective based in Washington, US.
"Despite being the largest animals to have ever lived, blue whales still show an impressive capacity to perform complex manoeuvres that are required to efficiently exploit patches of krill," said Dr Goldbogen.
Blue whales feed exclusively on krill: small crustaceans that have excellent escape responses, requiring the mammals to have efficient foraging strategies to be able to meet their energy demands.
To understand how these giants manage to capture prey, despite their size reducing their mobility, Dr Goldbogen and his team tagged a group of animals off the coast of southern California, US.
Using suction cups to safely attach the acoustic recording tags without harming the animals, the team were able to track the whales' movements with the help of underwater microphones.
Results revealed that the whales were executing impressive spins below the waves in order to
perform-выполнять
lunge-выпад, удар
gulping-глотающий
suction-всасывание
roll-катиться
exploit -использовать
mobility-подвижность
acoustic-звуковой
1. Do you like this article?
2. Did you see whales?
3. Whales are wonderful animals, aren't?
4. Do you know that whales are mammals?
5. What do whales do when they attact their prey?
6. Whales gulp up to 100 tonnes of krill-filled water, don't they?
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