Scientists want to know how many squid Pilot Whales eat each day. What they found was amazing

Here is some important life advice: Don’t try to challenge the pilot trail of the Finn-Finned Whale (Globalgephala Macrorhynchus) in a competition for eating squids. Research therefore shows that these servants of the sea can pack hundreds of live calamari per day.

For the first time, a large team of researchers has understood the diet of short-finned pilot whales that live in the waters off Hawaii. They found that a single whale can eat up to 200 squid a day, and the whales in the region can collectively eat about 416 million squid a year. Despite the painful numbers, the local population is doing just fine, as the whales feed on them, researchers say.

“Fortunately for us and for the Pilot Whales, the squid produced quickly and had high growth rates, which means the pilot whales of William Gough, who is a postdoctoral author at MIZNOA MAMMMAL PRAMMAL PRASEPAL, told Giznodo.

Lost data

Gough and his team weren’t really trying to solve the whales’ diet, at least not at first.

They initially wanted to learn more about false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) in the region. But these animals – actually a species of Dolphin – prove to be much tougher than they expected. During their fruitless efforts to track down the fake Killer Willer, they continue to run into large pilot pods. This encounter eventually gave them the idea for a new study, which aims to fill in the gaps in what we know about whales.

“We did a little bit of digging and, as it turns out, the number of Hawaiians flying whales on short drives is considered ‘Data lost’ by the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the International Union for the conservation of nature,” said father-in-law. “So any additional information on their movement or behavior would greatly aid conservation and management efforts for this Hawaiian water species.”

Short finned pilot whales are one of the two types of pilot whales (the other type is the big shock – finned whale pilot throat). They are commonly found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world, with approximately 8,000 whales living near Hawaii. Although their population numbers tend to be stable, they face certain man-made threats, such as shipwrecks, fishing gear drag, and climate change, which may eventually force them into northern areas.

Whales primarily rely on a solid diet of squid, although their exact needs – and how many squid they will take to meet these needs every day – were a mystery until now.

How much does a pilot make?

To obtain a short pilot calotic intake, the team said, the team had to combine data from a variety of sources, including short-lived tag values ​​from satellite tags, and stomach attacks of fin whales that have ended up in the world.

When the team pulled all of this information together, they estimated that the average whale would eat between 82 and 202 squid per day. To meet their energy needs, a whale would have to eat an average of 140 squid a day. Every year, that’s 74,000 squid per whale. For all the whales in the area, that adds up to nearly 88,000 tons of squid eaten every year.

The team’s findings were published Thursday in the experimental Journal Biology.

Food Trackers

This survey not only provides a bit of new trivia to share with your loving friends.

The same techniques that the team used to calculate the diets of whales can be used for other whales and dolphins, according to Gough. And they plan to organize more study.

“Over the past 10-16 years, researchers have been developing some really impressive tags and drone data for a variety of different species and species ranging from species to blue whales,” said the hawk.

That everything sounds good. I just hope scientists never try to figure out how many wings I eat during the MLB baseball season.