Cuvier’s beaked whale, following the excellence, perhaps.
Photo: Haiti Paves / Getty Images / iStockphoto
It seems fair to say that, for humanity, things don’t go well when it comes to speaking in general. But for whales? Not too great, thank you, humanity! But especially for Cuvier’s beaked whales? Well, I can’t speak for all of them, but what I can say is that they have reason to be proud. A queer’s beaked whale has managed to break the record for the longest deep dive by a sea mammal, which has held its breath underwater for about four hours, which is really something. Gizmodo calls the achievement “mind-bending”, but I will add another example of Sitasian excellence to add to the pile.
To be clear, Cuvier has beaked whales – as a rule – very good at catching their breath when they hunt squid in the deep sea. In fact, their expertise in this category earned Cuvier’s Beak Whale ranked number-ten in our comprehensive whale power rankings. But while the previous record holder for long dives was logged below the surface of two hours and 17 minutes, a new champion (tugged Zsiteg 066) has now rearranged the bar twice.
In 2017, researchers with Duke University and the Cascadia Research Collective saw the ZTag 066 perform two impressive dives: one that lasted about three hours, and another, a week later, which lasted only three hours and 42 minutes. Scientists published their findings Journal of Experimental Biology On wednesday Eventually, however, these two data points were excluded from their set, combining Kaviar’s aerobic dive limit over five years with a view to ball-parking, as they [one-hour] Contact of the Navy’s mid-frequency active sonar signal. That exposure may affect their typical foraging style.
But still, dives happened, and I think that’s important here. To quote Nicola Quick of Duke University Marine Laboratory Animal Behavior, “These people blow our expectations!” According to Gizmodo, the researchers approached their study expecting that after about minutes after minutes the whales would need to come to the air, a calculation they based on the seal’s internal oxygen stores and diving limits. The average duration of the beaver whales they tracked works just under 78 minutes, so: Great job all around, whales, rest work per normal.
