Abstract
Determining the baseline behavior of a whale requires understanding natural variations occurring due to environmental context, such as changes in prey behavior. Killer whales feeding on herring consistently encircle herring schools; however, depth of feeding differs from near the surface in winter to deeper than 10 m in spring and summer. These variations in feeding depth are probably due to the depth of the prey and the balance between the costs and benefits of bringing schools of herring to the surface. Such variation in baseline behavior may incur different energetic costs and consequently change the motivation of whales to avoid a feeding area. Here, we discuss these variations in feeding behavior in the context of exposure to noise and interpret observed responses to simulated navy sonar signals.
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Acknowledgments
We greatly appreciated all the professional and skilled support of the captain and crew of RV HU Sverdrup II as well as the support of fieldwork participants. This work was funded by the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, the Office of Naval Research, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Norway, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Grant SFRH/BD/30303/2006, and a Russell Trust Award from the University of St. Andrews. Experiments were carried out under Permits 2004/20607, 2007/61201, 2009/35289 and 2011/38782 from the Norwegian Authority for Animal Experimentation in compliance with the ethical use of animals in experimentation. The research protocols were approved by the University of St. Andrews Animal Welfare and Ethics Committee and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
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Samarra, F.I.P., Miller, P.J.O. (2016). Identifying Variations in Baseline Behavior of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) to Contextualize Their Responses to Anthropogenic Noise. In: Popper, A., Hawkins, A. (eds) The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life II. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 875. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2981-8_119
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