ArticleeLife2020
Energetic and physical limitations on the breaching performance of large whales.
Article in eLife, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Locomotion and hunting strategies of large vertebrate predators in pelagic waters.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Review
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- Spin-leap performance by cetaceans is influenced by moment of inertia.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Cheap gulp foraging of a giga-predator enables efficient exploitation of sparse prey.Science advances · 2023Article
- Deployment of biologging tags on free swimming large whales using uncrewed aerial systems.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Scaling of maneuvering performance in baleen whales: larger whales outperform expectations.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Scaling of oscillatory kinematics and Froude efficiency in baleen whales.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- High resolution biologging of breaching by the world's second largest shark species.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
- Article
- Rorqual Lunge-Feeding Energetics Near and Away from the Kinematic Threshold of Optimal Efficiency.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- Whale breaching says it loud and clear.eLife · 2020Article
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18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The considerable power needed for large whales to leap out of the water may represent the single most expensive burst maneuver found in nature. However, the mechanics and energetic costs associated with the breaching behaviors of large whales remain poorly understood. In this study we deployed whale-borne tags to measure the kinematics of breaching to test the hypothesis that these spectacular aerial displays are metabolically expensive. We found that breaching whales use variable underwater trajectories, and that high-emergence breaches are faster and require more energy than predatory lunges. The most expensive breaches approach the upper limits of vertebrate muscle performance, and the energetic cost of breaching is high enough that repeated breaching events may serve as honest signaling of body condition. Furthermore, the confluence of muscle contractile properties, hydrodynamics, and the high speeds required likely impose an upper limit to the body size and effectiveness of breaching whales.
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