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Message text written by "Srdjan Bukvic"
"
I am doing a project on fin whales and can't find what the niche of the fin
whale is. Could you tell me please?
Thank you.
Srdjan Bukvic"
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Srdjan,
The niche (at least in terms of feeding behavior during the winter) varies
by location, depending on the other large baleen whales and
zooplankton-feeding fish (such as basking sharks) that may be in the
particular area.
But niches are often shared among various species of baleen whales: For
example, in some studies in the Antarctic, fin, sei and humpback whales are
most frequently found around areas of dense krill, and there certainly is
potential interspecies competition among these as well as other
krill-feeding marine predators.
In the North Atlantic, however, researchers note that although there is
some overlap in food preferences by baleen whales, that right whales and
some of the planktonic sharks tend to prefer copepods, while humpbacks may
go for schooling fish, leaving krill more often to blue and fin whales. In
some areas such as in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, it is noticeable
that the minkes and hupmbacks tend to feed fairly close to shore, while the
fin whales are a little farther out and the blues tend to be the farthest
away. Also the blues may spend longer feeding in an area than fins whales
until ice forces them out of an area. So niche can be prey-specific,
temporal and/or spatial.
Sincerely,
Erich Hoyt
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