The relationship between Humpback Whales and marine birds is an excellent example of commensalism . ... Closer to the shore, gulls such as herring or laughing gulls will take advantage of these large schools of fish conveniently located right at the surface because of the whale’s behavior.
All birds are also much more recently and closely related to one another than are whales and fishes , making structural differences among them relatively slight.
Why do birds hang around whales?
Very often, seabirds and marine mammals forage in the same patches of water. The birds take advantage of whales’ feeding behaviours to catch a few prey of their own . ... Gulls take this opportunity to pick up dead fish left on the water surface following a devastating run of whales.
Do birds eat whales?
Such caution is a good idea; a killer whale has been seen, on the outer coast of Península Valdés, striking with its tail at a gull that pecked it, and though that gull narrowly escaped, the stomach contents of killer whales often include the toenails of several gulls. ...
Do birds land on whales?
But some seabirds also have a taste for whales. ... Now researchers have documented a similar behavior in giant petrels in subantarctic waters, in which the birds land on the backs sperm whales and take bites out of their victims.
Do birds have the same DNA?
Aside from the obvious distinctions like wings and feathers, birds have only about half as much DNA per cell as mammals and reptiles . Many biologists had assumed that the diminished bird genome was simply the legacy of some ancient genetic accident, when a huge chunk of DNA was somehow deleted in an ancestral bird.
Do whales have parasites?
Parasites like tapeworms infect the digestive tracts of their hosts, absorbing valuable nutrients from the host’s meal. Just like people, whales can have tapeworms. The largest tapeworm in the world was found in a whale, and measured over 30 metres long!
Why do birds sit on the beach?
For example: Why do birds sitting on a beach all face the same direction? It’s a survival tactic . No matter how many gulls, terns, pelicans, shore birds are gathered on a beach, they’ll all face into the wind. ... Birds have more control over their movements if they lift off into the wind.
Why do birds sit on the water?
When birds bathe in water or saturate themselves with dust they are actively maintaining their plumage . In well-watered areas bathing is most common, in arid ones dusting is more often observed. Experiments with quail show that frequent dusting helps to maintain an optimum amount of oil on the feathers.
How do whales benefit from barnacles?
In the case of barnacles and whales, only the barnacles benefit from attaching to the whales , but at no biological cost to the whale. This type of symbiotic relationship is known as commensalism. In this case, attaching to the whales gives the barnacles a stable place to live, a free ride, and access to plenty of food.
Do whales eat humans?
Experts noted that whales do not eat people , but consume small aquatic lifeforms like fish, squid and krill. ... — a popular site for whale watching — when suddenly a humpback whale breached, nearly killing the kayakers. But whales do not eat people, whereas sharks often mistake humans for food.
Do whales ever accidentally eat birds?
Their throats are too small to swallow a human, Gorter told Live Science, though some baleen whales have been documented to accidentally swallow small birds . Humpback whales, he said, have been found with Cassin’s auklets in their stomachs, but those birds grow to only about 9 inches (23 centimeters) long.
Do humpbacks eat birds?
Trapped inside is far more than fish . “We saw this over and over again, the humpbacks engulfing seabirds,” says Trevor Haynes, a fisheries ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Alaska who published a study on his observations in 2013. “The birds were so focused, they didn’t see the whales coming.
What is a good example of symbiosis?
The symbiotic relationship between an anemone (Heteractis magnifica) and a clownfish (Amphiron ocellaris) is a classic example of two organisms benefiting the other; the anemone provides the clownfish with protection and shelter, while the clownfish provides the anemone nutrients in the form of waste while also scaring ...
Do seagulls eat whale blubber?
Researchers have found that the birds are attacking and eating the blubber from the backs of young whales as they surface to breathe . ... While seagulls first learned to pull pieces of skin from the backs of southern right whales in the 1970s, the attacks appear to have grown more vicious in recent years.
Do whales have gills?
Whales and dolphins are mammals and breathe air into their lungs, just like we do. They cannot breathe underwater like fish can as they do not have gills . They breathe through nostrils, called a blowhole, located right on top of their heads.
