For one population of whales, teamwork makes the dream work.
Decades after commercial whaling nearly drove them to extinction, a feeding behavior known as bubble netting is helping a group of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Canada recover. Observational data collected over 20 years suggest a few key individuals are passing the knowledge through social networks, researchers report January 21 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In the Kitimat Fjord System in northern British Columbia, humpback whale counts have been growing at a rate of 6 to 8 percent per year; the population now exceeds 500 individuals. Here, groups of up to sixteen humpbacks can now be spotted