COA Allied Whale staff members Sean Todd and Lindsey Jones MPhil ’18 contribute a publication to Aquatic Mammals presenting the first-ever drone observations of a humpback whale calf mimicking its mother’s feeding behavior.
The new research was conducted under the Allied Whale-Cetos research permit from NOAA in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Researchers worked aboard College of the Atlantic’s research vessel M/V Osprey off the banks of Grand Manan Island, a known feeding ground for whales. Drones or unmanned autonomous vehicles are powerful tools for capturing the behaviors of marine mammals in non-invasive ways. The behavior observed via drone in the Bay of Fundy suggests that humpback whale calves use mimicry to learn complex feeding behaviors. The footage capturing the feeding behaviors of the mother and calf feeding was analyzed frame-by-frame and indicated that the mother’s foraging sequences were mimicked by her calf with a delay of 2 to 3 seconds. The calf appears to mimic the other’s approach, body disposition, and choreography as it feeds on krill.
The anecdotal observations of the study contribute to the ongoing research on the social learning behaviors of humpback whale calves.
