Sowerby's beaked whale biosonar and movement strategy indicate deep-sea foraging niche differentiation in mesoplodont whales.

ABSTRACT: Closely related species are expected to diverge in foraging strategy, reflecting the evolutionary drive to optimize foraging performance. The most speciose cetacean genus, Mesoplodon, comprises beaked whales with little diversity in external morphology or diet, and overlapping distributions. Moreover, the few studied species of beaked whales (Ziphiidae) show very similar foraging styles with slow, energy-conserving movement during long, deep foraging dives. This raises the question of what factors drive their speciation. Using data from animal-attached tags and aerial imagery, we tested the hypothesis that two similar-sized mesoplodonts, Sowerby's (Mesoplodon bidens) and Blainville's (Mesoplodon densirostris) beaked whales, exploit a similar low-energy niche. We show that, compared with th

SUBMITTER: Visser F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9163448 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature