Like a huge whale could sneak up to large shoals of fish?

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2019-12-24 21:20:08

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Like a huge whale could sneak up to large shoals of fish? Source:

body Weight humpback whales can reach 30 000 kg

In 2019, the researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa are awesome the hunting of humpback whales on a large shoal of small fish. As it turned out, to feed each other, the whales arrange the fish trap out the bubbles and let the relatives go through the school of fish with his mouth wide open. But scientists still didn't know how so huge marine mammals manage to quietly approach the agile fish and not to spook them. Finding the answer to this question took the American scientists, led by an expert on the whales Jeremy Goldbogen. The answer was found after carrying out a little experiment.

Its essence and the results were described in a scientific journal . It is known that humpback whales mainly feed on anchovies, the length of which does not exceed 20 centimeters. Despite its small size, for huge 16-metre humpback whale they are still coveted because they love to gather in shoals hundreds strong. After going through a group of fish with open mouth, whales can eat 30-60% of the pack, then it is enough to be fed.

Why the whales are invisible?

As mentioned above, scientists have long wondered how whales manage to quietly swim to the strict pack tiny and nimble fish. The fact that anchovies escape from predators for millions of years and during that time learned to avoid sea lions and other animals. However, all this time they have not developed a strategy for fast detection and avoidance of the whales.

According to the researchers, the secret of a huge mammal lies in the size of their torso. They have suggested that the anchovies simply do not have time to notice and be frightened of the approaching whales because of their huge body even from a distance appear stationary spots, which increases too slowly. But a relatively small body of sea lions and other predators can be noticed much earlier, because when swimming they make a lot more maneuvers than whales.

Sea lions whales clearly smaller in size

This assumption was tested during the laboratory experiment. The researchers put the small fish in the aquarium and showed them the images of the approaching predators in patches of different sizes. As it turned out, the fish do respond faster to small moving spots, whereas large objects they are often simply ignored. This is their fault — they are simply unable to notice the slowly approaching the carcass . And when the predators open their mouths, it becomes too late, and many of the anchovies are the victims.

After the experiment, the researchers decided to follow the behavior of anchovies in nature. It turned out that when the school of fish approaching the big beasts, small inhabitants of the seas do not suspect impending danger. However, once they see him floating towards the smaller predator, they swim in all directions.

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