BajaNomad

orca attacks on gray whales...new data

shari - 2-8-2011 at 07:46 AM

I just read a really fascinating article on Orca attacks on gray whales...of course we all know that Killer Whales love eating baby gray whales but what I didnt know is that after drowning them, they take the carcasses to a secret place to store them for future meals.

Near Asuncion is a valley where there are many petrified whale bones and I often wonder why there are so many whale skeletons in one spot....this may be why. I had heard it was possibly a kill zone but it makes more sense now reading this article that is was where the whales were brought to be devoured by big sharks like megaladons.

Very interesting article.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl...

The team of scientists from Alaska, Washington and British Columbia also watched killer whales actually transporting their dead prey for miles along the shore -- apparently with the goal of storing tons of blubber and muscle in shallow water so they could return later and continue to feast. The predators gathered at dozens of carcass sites, revealed at the surface by oil slicks and a ripe smell.

It was the first time any whales have been documented caching food, a behavior common among terrestrial predators as dissimilar as bears or alligators, but reported only once before for a species of marine mammals, Antarctica's Weddell seals.
The annual gathering of killer whales to ambush gray whales traveling along the Pacific Rim sends ripples through the local ecosystem -- forcing gray whales to hug the coast, concentrating birds and scavengers, attracting enormous sleeper sharks from the abyss and drawing brown bears to beaches when hunks of reeking flesh wash up high and dry.
It shows, the scientists said, how the ocean's top predator might play a "central role" in the structure of the North Pacific's marine community.
These "killer whales have developed a unique set of culturally transmitted social and foraging behaviors that appear to be shaped by the behavior and distribution of their marine mammal prey," the scientists wrote.
"The carcass-storing behavior described here relies on shallow depths around Unimak Island and provides a way for killer whales to utilize a greater proportion of prey carcasses than they would in a single feeding bout, increasing the benefit of preying on large and potentially dangerous species."

shari - 2-8-2011 at 07:57 AM

yesterday was a big whale day...spouts everywhere and it seems like we reached the turnaround point with many whales now heading north again...still some southbounds too. The whales were happy with calmer seas and I saw several breaches.

vgabndo - 2-8-2011 at 10:07 PM

To think that this eye may have seen the result of her not being able to defend her baby from the Killer Whales, and it rises up out of the depths and stares at me with the apparent intention of interacting peacefully with me.

I'm glad I'm not her enemy.

Baja 2011 second download 0820000.jpg - 26kB

Skipjack Joe - 2-8-2011 at 10:12 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by shari

I just read a really fascinating article on Orca attacks on gray whales...of course we all know that Killer Whales love eating baby gray whales but what I didnt know is that after drowning them, they take the carcasses to a secret place to store them for future meals.

Near Asuncion is a valley where there are many petrified whale bones and I often wonder why there are so many whale skeletons in one spot....this may be why.


Good reasoning.

That sounds plausible to me.

Cypress - 2-9-2011 at 06:23 AM

shari, Thanks for sharing the info.

jahImpala3 - 2-12-2011 at 08:37 AM

Very interesting, thank you