Using state-of-the-art drone technology, scientists have managed to get an intimate look at the intriguing underwater foraging behavior of gray whales off the Oregon coast.
Clara Bird, a researcher at the Oregon State University , has spent seven years compiling this drone footage.
In doing so, she’s managed to quantify the gray whales’ behavior, as well as their individual size and body condition. It turns out that age plays a significant role in the way whales behave while foraging.
Exploring the whale dynamics
Bird observed that younger, smaller whales tend to swim forward while foraging, while their older, larger counterparts display a unique behavior: headstanding.
Wondering what that is? It’s when a whale, head-down, pushes its mouth into the ocean floor, almost like it’s doing a handstand. As odd as it may seem to us, it seems to be a part of the whales’ growing process.
