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New publication: Social diving behaviour of long-finned pilot whales

Social diving behaviour of long-finned pilot whales

Combined methodology of the group behaviour research of KMR and advanced tagging technology of the University of Tokyo and the University of St Andrews have revealed highly synchronous diving behaviour of pairs of closely associated long-finned pilot whales. Deep-diving pilot whales that were within one body length apart at the surface, retained this close proximity and synchrony during deep foraging dives (500 m). Photographs of the diving whales also recorded affiliative behaviours between the paired whales, showing individuals touching each other with their flippers. These data confirm the sociality of this deep-diving cetacean and gain new insight into the way in which group members remain in contact, and relocalise each other, during and following dives of several hundreds of meters of depth into dark waters.

 

Body contact and synchronous diving in long-finned pilot whales

Aoki K, Sakai M, Miller JO, Visser F and Sato K (2013)

Behavioural Processes 99: 12-20 


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