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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Environmental Sciences

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Series

Killer whale

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Social Network Correlates Of Food Availability In An Endangered Population Of Killer Whales, Orcinus Orca, Emma A. Foster, Daniel W. Franks, Lesley J. Morrell, Ken C. Balcomb, Kim M. Parsons, Astrid Van Ginneken, Darren P. Croft Jan 2012

Social Network Correlates Of Food Availability In An Endangered Population Of Killer Whales, Orcinus Orca, Emma A. Foster, Daniel W. Franks, Lesley J. Morrell, Ken C. Balcomb, Kim M. Parsons, Astrid Van Ginneken, Darren P. Croft

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

For the majority of social species, group composition is dynamic, and individuals are interconnected in a heterogeneous social network. Social network structure has far-reaching implications for the ecology of individuals and populations. However, we have little understanding of how ecological variables shape this structure. We used a long-term data set (1984e2007) to examine the relationship between food availability and social network structure in the endangered southern resident killer whales. During the summer months individuals in this population feed primarily on chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, which show annual variation in abundance. We tested the hypothesis that temporal variation in chinook …


Estimated Field Metabolic Rates And Prey Requirements Of Resident Killer Whales, Dawn P. Noren Jan 2011

Estimated Field Metabolic Rates And Prey Requirements Of Resident Killer Whales, Dawn P. Noren

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Killer whales are large animals that often feed in groups and thus have the potential to deplete prey populations. Determining predator energy requirements is essential to assessing whether prey availability is sufficient. This is important because one risk factor facing the endangered Southern Resident killer whale distinct population segment is limited prey availability. Body mass, field metabolic rate (FMR), and daily prey energy requirements (DPERs) were estimated for each individual in the population. FMRs were calculated from body mass, assuming they range from five to six times Kleiber-predicted basal metabolic rates. FMRs of adults were also calculated from resident killer …


Cooperative Hunting Behavior, Prey Selectivity And Prey Handling By Pack Ice Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca), Type B, In Antarctic Peninsula Waters, Robert L. Pitman, John W. Durban Jan 2011

Cooperative Hunting Behavior, Prey Selectivity And Prey Handling By Pack Ice Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca), Type B, In Antarctic Peninsula Waters, Robert L. Pitman, John W. Durban

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Currently, there are three recognized ecotypes (or species) of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Antarctic waters, including type B, a putative prey specialist on seals, which we refer to as “pack ice killer whale” (PI killer whale). During January 2009, we spent a total of 75.4 h observing three different groups of PI killer whales hunting off the western Antarctic Peninsula. Observed prey taken included 16 seals and 1 Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis). Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) were taken almost exclusively (14/15 identified seal kills), despite the fact that they represented only 15% …