Spectacular Cooperative Hunting Strategy Documented in Humpback Whales

Humpback whales, weighing up to 40 tons, are known for swallowing staggering amounts of food on a daily basis. Scientists have recently documented an astonishing nocturnal predation strategy among these cetaceans.

Unity is Strength

In studying a group of Megaptera novaeangliae off the coast of Massachusetts, David Wiley and his colleagues noticed that they emitted a paired vocalization when they were near the seabed and under low-light conditions, suggesting they were coordinating their movements.

Intrigued, the team fitted tags with cameras to track their movements and interactions. Analysis of these data revealed a cooperative predation technique, reminiscent of the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

While one individual swam along the sandy bottom to dislodge prey fish buried in the sediments, two other M. novaeangliae would spring up and position themselves at 11 o’clock and 1 o’clock, opening their mouths when they were close enough to the scout and eagerly gobbling the fleeing fish.

Altogether, out of 110 documented benthic (bottom-dwelling) hunting episodes, 79 % involved close cooperation within groups of three to four whales, illustrating the highly social nature of these cetaceans and their remarkable cognitive abilities.

More Food and Less Energy Expended

According to the team, adopting such a strategy could be linked to the scarcity of prey, or aimed at maximizing the amount of food swallowed, thereby significantly reducing the energy expended in this activity.

But as Wiley notes, no matter how clever the approach, it also exposes the cetaceans to a risk of entanglement in fishing gear that litter the seafloor, notably pots and gillnets, described as ubiquitous.

“Better understanding these unique behaviours will help guide conservation strategies,” conclude the authors of the new study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Two years ago, humpback whales joined the very exclusive club of animals using hunting tools, in this case “bubble nets.”