Scaling of maneuvering performance in baleen whales: larger whales outperform expectations

• DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243224
• Publication Date: 2022-03-02T15:48:59Z
• Authors: Paolo S. Segre; William T. Gough; Edward A. Roualdes; David E. Cade; Max F. Czapanskiy; James Fahlbusch; Shirel R. Kahane-...; William K. Oestreich; Lars Bejder; K. C. Bierlich; Julia A. Burrows; John Calambokidis; Ellen M. Chenoweth; Jacopo di Clemente; John W. Durban; Holly Fearnbach; Frank E. Fish; Ari S. Friedlaender; Peter Hegelund; David W. Johnston; Douglas P. Nowacek; Machiel G. Oudejans; Gwenith S. Penry; Jean Potvin; Malene Simon; Andrew Stanworth; Janice M. Straley; Andrew Szabo; Simone K. A. Videsen; Fleur Visser; Caroline R. Weir; David N. Wiley; Jeremy A. Goldbogen
• Keywords: Baleen

ABSTRACT Despite their enormous size, whales make living as voracious predators. To catch much smaller, more maneuverable prey, they have developed several unique locomotor strategies that require high energetic input, mechanical power output and a surprising degree of agility. better understand how body size affects maneuverability at the largest scale, we used bio-logging data, aerial photogrammetry high-throughput approach to quantify maneuvering performance seven species free-swimming baleen whale. We found increases, absolute decreases: larger use lower accelerations perform slower pitch-changes, rolls turns than smaller species. also exhibit positive allometry performance: relative higher accelerations, faster certain types However, not all maneuvers were impacted by in same way, behaviorally adjust for decreased agility using can effectively. The suggests large compensated increased evolving effective control surfaces preferentially selecting play strengths.