OPP-PRF: Exploring the Role of a Humpback Whale Cultural Foraging Innovation within the Antarctic Ecosystem in the LTER Study Region

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Foraging innovations often develop in response to changes in the surrounding feeding conditions, such as which prey species are available. In recent years, bubble-net feeding has emerged as a new foraging innovation in the humpback whales that feed in the area of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Such strategies can spread through a population by social learning, when individuals learn from those they spend time with. This has led to cultural differences in how distinct populations feed. This project will explore what is driving the spread of this strategy throughout this population. The findings will tell us how humpback whales may be responding to the shifts in the Antarctic ecosystem occurring due to climate change. Additionally, this project will use humpback whales to explore key scientific questions around culture in animal species, a topic that is becoming increasingly important to conservation efforts. Outreach and education materials will be developed to better engage the public with this unique Antarctic research and its important conservation implications.This project uses long term multi-platform data from the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) study on the western Antarctic Peninsula with data from animal borne tags, behavioral observations, biopsies, photo-identification, and drone footage to model how bubble-netting has emerged and spread in humpback whales. The strategy will be modelled relative to both demographic and environmental variables. It is hypothesized that the behavior is a socially learned response to environmental changes in their Antarctic foraging conditions. Ultimately the results will broaden our understanding of how species may use social learning and culture to adjust to the impacts of climate change.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.