@article {Aguilar Soto:September 2008:0021-8790:936,
author = "Aguilar Soto, Natacha",
author = "Johnson, Mark P.",
author = "Madsen, Peter T.",
author = "Diaz, Francisca",
author = "Dominguez, Ivan",
author = "Brito, Alberto",
author = "Tyack, Peter",
title = "Cheetahs of the deep sea: deep foraging sprints in short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife (Canary Islands)",
journal = "Journal of Animal Ecology",
volume = "77",
year = "September 2008",
abstract = "Summary • Empirical testing of optimal foraging models for breath-hold divers has been difficult. Here we report data from sound and movement recording DTags placed on 23 short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife to study the foraging strategies used to catch deep-water prey. • Day and night foraging dives had a maximum depth and duration of 1018 m and 21 min. Vocal behaviour during dives was consistent with biosonar-based foraging, with long series of echolocation clicks interspersed with buzzes. Similar buzzes have been associated with prey capture attempts in other echolocating species. • Foraging dives seemed to adapt to circadian rhythms. Deep dives during the day were deeper, but contained fewer buzzes (median 1), than night-time deep dives (median 5 buzzes). • In most deep (540-1019 m) daytime dives with buzzes, a downward directed sprint reaching up to 9 m s−1 occurred just prior to a buzz and coincided with the deepest point in the dive, suggestive of a chase after escaping prey. • A large percentage (10-36%) of the drag-related locomotion cost of these dives (15 min long) is spent in sprinting (19-79 s). This energetic foraging tactic focused on a single or few prey items has not been observed previously in deep-diving mammals but resembles the high-risk/high-gain strategy of some terrestrial hunters such as cheetahs. • Deep sprints contrast with the expectation that deep-diving mammals will swim at moderate speeds optimized to reduce oxygen consumption and maximize foraging time at depth. Pilot whales may have developed this tactic to target a deep-water niche formed by large/calorific/fast moving prey such as giant squid.",
pages = "936-947(12)",
url = "http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/janim/2008/00000077/00000005/art00011"
doi = "doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01393.x"
}