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More Insight into Whale Feeding Behavior

By jjacquet on November 28, 2008.

Food is the name of the game this week (well, food, and trampling store employees on Black Friday). And friend and fellow Ph.D. student here at UBC, Jeremy Goldbogen (photographed with a minke whale jaw bone), has some new research out this week on the feeding habits of humpback whales and it dons the cover of the current issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology. Jeremy and his colleagues found that lunge-feeding requires a large amount of energy compared to other behaviors--humpback whales breathe three times harder after returning to the surface from a foraging dive than from singing. For more on whale feeding, also visit Carl Zimmer's article about Goldbogen et al.'s research in The New York Times last year.

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Personally, I find fasting enjoyable. Shorter fasts help me reduce calories and I believe my mental performance increases slightly. Longer fasts I use primarily as a means to cleanse myself, but I wouldn't do a long fast if I have to work. I also think that fasting has improved my discipline in eating healthy