An interesting behavior has been seen among Southern Right Whale cows, and it appears to be driven by parental angst.
Mother Right Whales have been seen swimming upside down, and while initially thought to be an indicator of distress, it appears that it is instead an attempt to cool down and get some, "Me time."
The sight of a huge whale floating upside-down might be worrisome. Is it sick or injured? According to a new study, probably not—the whale is likely a mom taking a well-deserved break from raising her calves.
Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) migrate extremely long distances—about 3,728 miles (6,000 kilometers)—between western Australia and Antarctica. While following this long journey with overhead drones, researchers noticed that some of the whales would lie upside-down at or just above the ocean surface. Upon further investigation, the team concluded that, fortunately, the whales weren’t sick. Rather, this behavior appeared to be a whale mother resting, either to prevent overheating or to get some reprieve from feeding milk to her calves. The team published its results in a recent paper for Mammalian Biology.
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Southern right whales lead an energy-intensive lifestyle. They’re known as capital breeders, which means the whales have separate locations for feeding and breeding. Earlier in the migration season, the whales swim over to Antarctica to feast on krill. Then they travel back to warmer breeding grounds on Australian coasts while relying on energy stored in their blubber, the team explained in The Conversation.
That calls for smart management of energy, as mothers’ body condition “declines as the season progresses while calf growth rate and energetic demands increase,” according to the paper. In that sense, resting upside-down would prevent calves from reaching their mother’s mammary slits, allowing the mom whale to get some well-deserved “beauty sleep,” as the researchers put it.
Whales seem more and more like us every day.
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