From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds
Nursing influences growth rate and overall health of mammals; however, the behavior is difficult to study in wild cetaceans because it occurs below the surface and can thus be misidentified from surface observations. Nursing has been observed in humpback whales on the breeding and calving grounds, b...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2020-03-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/8538.pdf |
| _version_ | 1827607212174868480 |
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| author | Jennifer E. Tackaberry David E. Cade Jeremy A. Goldbogen David N. Wiley Ari S. Friedlaender Alison K. Stimpert |
| author_facet | Jennifer E. Tackaberry David E. Cade Jeremy A. Goldbogen David N. Wiley Ari S. Friedlaender Alison K. Stimpert |
| author_sort | Jennifer E. Tackaberry |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Nursing influences growth rate and overall health of mammals; however, the behavior is difficult to study in wild cetaceans because it occurs below the surface and can thus be misidentified from surface observations. Nursing has been observed in humpback whales on the breeding and calving grounds, but the behavior remains unstudied on the feeding grounds. We instrumented three dependent calves (four total deployments) with combined video and 3D-accelerometer data loggers (CATS) on two United States feeding grounds to document nursing events. Two associated mothers were also tagged to determine if behavior diagnostic of nursing was evident in the mother’s movement. Animal-borne video was manually analyzed and the average duration of successful nursing events was 23 s (±7 sd, n = 11). Nursing occurred at depths between 4.1–64.4 m (along the seafloor) and in close temporal proximity to foraging events by the mothers, but could not be predicted solely by relative positions of mother and calf. When combining all calf deployments, successful nursing was documented eleven times; totaling only 0.3% of 21.0 hours of video. During nursing events, calves had higher overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) and increased fluke-stroke rate (FSR) compared to non-nursing segments (Mixed effect models, ODBA: F1,107 = 13.57756, p = 0.0004, FSR: F1,107 = 32.31018, p < 0.0001). In contrast, mothers had lower ODBA and reduced FSR during nursing events compared to non-nursing segments. These data provide the first characterization of accelerometer data of humpback whale nursing confirmed by animal-borne video tags and the first analysis of nursing events on feeding grounds. This is an important step in understanding the energetic consequences of lactation while foraging. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:51:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-78e67ceaba414738a42c4b38f246544b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:51:13Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-78e67ceaba414738a42c4b38f246544b2023-12-03T10:27:28ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592020-03-018e853810.7717/peerj.8538From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding groundsJennifer E. Tackaberry0David E. Cade1Jeremy A. Goldbogen2David N. Wiley3Ari S. Friedlaender4Alison K. Stimpert5Vertebrate Ecology Lab, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Moss Landing, CA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, United States of AmericaStellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Situate, MA, United States of AmericaUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States of AmericaVertebrate Ecology Lab, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Moss Landing, CA, United States of AmericaNursing influences growth rate and overall health of mammals; however, the behavior is difficult to study in wild cetaceans because it occurs below the surface and can thus be misidentified from surface observations. Nursing has been observed in humpback whales on the breeding and calving grounds, but the behavior remains unstudied on the feeding grounds. We instrumented three dependent calves (four total deployments) with combined video and 3D-accelerometer data loggers (CATS) on two United States feeding grounds to document nursing events. Two associated mothers were also tagged to determine if behavior diagnostic of nursing was evident in the mother’s movement. Animal-borne video was manually analyzed and the average duration of successful nursing events was 23 s (±7 sd, n = 11). Nursing occurred at depths between 4.1–64.4 m (along the seafloor) and in close temporal proximity to foraging events by the mothers, but could not be predicted solely by relative positions of mother and calf. When combining all calf deployments, successful nursing was documented eleven times; totaling only 0.3% of 21.0 hours of video. During nursing events, calves had higher overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) and increased fluke-stroke rate (FSR) compared to non-nursing segments (Mixed effect models, ODBA: F1,107 = 13.57756, p = 0.0004, FSR: F1,107 = 32.31018, p < 0.0001). In contrast, mothers had lower ODBA and reduced FSR during nursing events compared to non-nursing segments. These data provide the first characterization of accelerometer data of humpback whale nursing confirmed by animal-borne video tags and the first analysis of nursing events on feeding grounds. This is an important step in understanding the energetic consequences of lactation while foraging.https://peerj.com/articles/8538.pdfHumpback whaleMother-calfNursing rateFeeding groundVideo bio-loggingAccelerometer |
| spellingShingle | Jennifer E. Tackaberry David E. Cade Jeremy A. Goldbogen David N. Wiley Ari S. Friedlaender Alison K. Stimpert From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds PeerJ Humpback whale Mother-calf Nursing rate Feeding ground Video bio-logging Accelerometer |
| title | From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds |
| title_full | From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds |
| title_fullStr | From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds |
| title_full_unstemmed | From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds |
| title_short | From a calf’s perspective: humpback whale nursing behavior on two US feeding grounds |
| title_sort | from a calf s perspective humpback whale nursing behavior on two us feeding grounds |
| topic | Humpback whale Mother-calf Nursing rate Feeding ground Video bio-logging Accelerometer |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/8538.pdf |
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