Researchers have conducted one of the first quantitative studies of social structure and social foraging in Antarctic minke whales, using pioneering animal-borne camera tags.
Researchers have conducted one of the first quantitative studies of social structure and social foraging in Antarctic minke whales, using pioneering animal-borne camera tags.
This study, published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, sheds light on the complex social and foraging behaviors of these elusive krill specialists within the fragile Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem.
The study was led by Dr. Jenny Allen as a Griffith University Research Associate in collaboration with the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). Data were collected in 2018 and 2019 around the Western Antarctic Peninsula as part of a research grant from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs to Dr. Ari Friedlaender, a Professor in UCSC’s Ocean Sciences Department.
The study is unique in its use of motion-sensing, video- and audio-recording tags deployed on Antarctic minke whales for the first time to study their ecological role through analysis of their diving, foraging, and social behaviors.
