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APPARENT LATERALIZED BEHAVIOR IN GRAY WHALES FEEDING OFF THE CENTRAL BRITISH COLUMBIA COAST
Author(s) -
Woodward Becky L.,
Winn Jeremy P.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
marine mammal science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.723
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1748-7692
pISSN - 0824-0469
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2006.00006.x
Subject(s) - baleen , cetacea , gray (unit) , whale , population , right whale , geography , fishery , biology , demography , medicine , sociology , radiology
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.