HAMNER ET AL.: FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALES 



feeders that harvest prey while swimming lazily 

 through diffuse planktonic resources. Herwig et 

 al. (1984) presented preliminary evidence that 

 microbial fermentation of ingesta may occur in 

 the forestomach of baleen whales, a process which 

 may be expected to limit the throughput rate of 

 food in accordance with continuous-flow, stirred 

 tank reactor kinetics (Penry and Jumars 1987). It 

 is tempting to speculate that the feeding behavior 

 of right whales, among the largest endotherms on 

 earth, may be constrained by a digestive bottle- 

 neck analogous to that described for humming- 

 birds (Karasov et al. 1986), the smallest of en- 

 dotherms. These hypotheses warrant subsequent 

 testing through more extensive time-budget 

 analyses of right whales and other balaenopter- 

 ans on their feeding grounds, such as described 

 here and in Watkins et al. (1984). 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



We thank P. Hamner, M. Lang, and the crews 

 of the RV Hero and RV Polar Duke for field assis- 

 tance. R. Jedas wrote the computer program for 

 recording behavior in real time. R. Payne and V. 

 Rowntree were of great assistance in comparing 

 photographs of individual Antarctic whales and 

 of right whales occurring off Peninsula Valdes, 

 Argentina. P. Hamner provided editorial assis- 

 tance. This research was supported by NSF 

 grants DPP83-02852 and DPP86-14821. 



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