Work

Daily energetic expenditure and energy consumption of short-finned pilot whales

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Diving is one of the most important behaviors undertaken by marine mammals. Pilot whales (Globicephala spp.) are oceanic dolphins that regularly forage at extreme depths (∼600-1000 m) and maintain body sizes similar to beaked whales. They are also listed as data deficient, with little known about their population dynamics. To help fill this knowledge gap, we estimated their energetic demands through a combination of multiple data streams (e.g. unoccupied aerial systems photogrammetry, high-resolution accelerometry tag data, stomach content analysis and long-duration dive data from satellite tags) from short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) in Hawaiian waters. We estimated and compared pilot whale field metabolic rates from breathing frequency against a more granular cost of transport method developed from morphometrics and swimming kinematics, finding that these methods gave similar estimates of energetic expenditure during foraging dives. We then combined expenditure and intake estimates into an exploratory model of daily net energetic balance. Using an estimate of prey size derived from squid beaks collected from a stranded animal, we found that an average of 142±59.8 squid day-1 (52,000±21,800 squid year-1) is enough for an average adult short-finned pilot whale to reach a neutral net energetic balance. This species has an estimated population abundance of ∼8000 individuals in Hawaiian waters, suggesting that the population as a whole would require 416±175 million squid (at an average of 559±126 kJ squid-1) or approximately 88,000±37,000 tonnes of squid annually, assuming similar energetic requirements for each animal.

Source: Journal of Experimental Biology

DOI: 10.1242/jeb.249821