Macquarie Study Documents Humpback 'Gaping' Behavior
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- Macquarie University study used social‑media footage of 66 humpback whales, including a pirouetting individual off Western Australia, to document a behavior termed “gaping,” where whales open their jaws wide while rotating.
- Dr Vanessa Pirotta, co‑author of the paper, describes the gaping display as likely a social signal or play behavior, and emphasizes that tourism operators and citizen scientists are crucial for capturing such rare events.
- Dr Olaf Meynecke notes that typical humpback feeding involves rapid lunge feeding with acceleration and prey capture, whereas the observed gaping lacks these dynamics, indicating a distinct non‑feeding activity.
- Orrca (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) traditionally associates wide‑jaw openings with lunge feeding, but the new findings suggest gaping occurs on migration routes where whales are fasting, separating it from feeding.
- Citizen scientists contributed the video of the “pirouetting” whale, providing the first clear visual evidence of gaping during the May migration, which marks the start of the whale‑watching season on Australia’s coasts.
Why it matters: Tourism operators and conservation groups gain precise behavioral insights for safer whale‑watching safety and marketing, while misinterpreting the displays could lead to ineffective protection measures, potentially reducing tourist revenue during the peak May migration.
