Social survival: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use social structure to partition ecological niches within proposed critical habitat.

ABSTRACT: Animal culture and social bonds are relevant to wildlife conservation because they influence patterns of geography, behavior, and strategies of survival. Numerous examples of socially-driven habitat partitioning and ecological-niche specialization can be found among vertebrates, including toothed whales. But such social-ecological dynamics, described here as 'social niche partitioning', are not known among baleen whales, whose societies-particularly on foraging grounds-are largely perceived as unstructured and incidental to matters of habitat use and conservation. However, through 16 years of behavioral observations and photo-identifications of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding within a fjord system in the Canadian Pacific (primarily within Gitga'at First Nation waters), we

SUBMITTER: Wray J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8221492 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature