G. Carleton Ray is with The 

 Johns Hopkins Univenity, Bal- 

 timore, MD 21205. His" work 

 was partly supported by con- 

 tracts to the University from the 

 Office of Naval Research (Oce- 

 anic Biologv). contract Nonr 

 N00014-67-A-0I63-0010 03. 

 William E. Schevill is with the 

 Museum of Comparative Zool- 

 ogy, Harvard University, and 

 the Woods Hole Oceanographic 

 Institution, Woods Hole, MA 

 02543. This is Contribution No. 

 3069 from the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution. His 

 work was partly supported by 

 the Office of Naval Research 

 (Oceanic Biologv), contract 

 Nonr N00014-66-()241. 



is to some extent vegetarian (which 

 would make it a most exceptional 

 cetacean), supposing that seaweed 

 found in the stomach is food and not 

 merely incidentally swallowed. Howell 

 and Huey (1930) found the planktonic 

 Eiiplnuisiii pacificu in the baleen of 

 a gray whale taken off northern Cali- 

 fornia on 21 July 1926. Gilmore 

 (1961. p. 11) gives a winter observa- 

 tion of presumed feeding by gray 

 whales, '"criss-crossing thru a dense 

 school of small fish, like anchovies, 

 off San Diego," and Ken Balcomb 

 (pers. comm.) informs us that a gray 

 whale beached 15 miles north of 

 Grays Harbor. Wash., in April, had 

 a gullet packed with several gallons 

 of OsnuTus nionla.x (rainbow smelt). 

 It would appear that EsclvicltiiKs is 

 not limited to eating small benthic 

 crustaceans, but will also eat a variety 

 of other food as opportunity offers. 

 Gray whales seem to do most of 

 their feeding in the Bering and 

 Chukchi Seas (Pike. 1962, p. 831-8.32). 

 Rice and Wolman (1971. p. 24-2,S) 

 conclude that all organisms found 

 in the stomachs of gray whales killed 

 on the Arctic summer grounds are 

 "infaunal benthic species." They state 

 that 95 percent of the food species 

 found in one Bering Sea sample were 

 gammaridean aniphipods 6 to 25 mm 

 long, and that the predominant spe- 

 cies from this sample, Anipdiscu 

 iiuicroi cplnild. "occurs mainly en 



sandy bottoms at depths of 5 to 300 

 meters" (italics oursl. Zimushko and 

 Lenskaya (1970) say that gray whales 

 feed on nectobenthos. some 70 spe- 

 cies in all. but that only six species of 

 amphipods are of primary importance. 

 We assume that though such active 

 creatures as amphipods may be in- 

 faunal at times, their well-known ten- 

 dency, when disturbed, to move just 

 off the bottom, would make them 

 readily available to a sweeping whale. 

 One of us (Ray) observed this amphi- 

 pod behavior from a submersible in 

 the Bering Sea in 1972. Nemoto 

 ( 1959) has discussed probable feeding 

 behavior of whales in the light of 

 mouth shape and baleen characteris- 

 tics. During the last century many 

 authors have alluded to gray whales 

 surfacing with mud visible on the 

 beak or other dorso-lateral parts. Pike 

 (1962. p. 823) cites a particularly 

 illuminating communication from Dr. 

 F. H. Fay, who mentions a gray whale 

 supposed to be feeding in 5 fathoms: 

 "As this whale surfaced close to the 

 vessel, mud was seen washing from 

 its back." Although Tomilin (1957. 

 p. 347) supposes that these whales 

 may actually dig their mouths into 

 the bottom, scooping and plowing, it 

 seems to us (see below) that their 

 behavior and anatomy are better 

 adapted to sweeping the bottom than 

 for digging; this accords well with 

 the evidence of asymmetrical barnacle 

 infestation and baleen wear reported 

 by Kasuya and Rice ( 1970). 



The gray whale calf. Gigi, which 

 was captured in March 197 1 and 

 kept by Sea World. San Diego, was 

 initially fed an artilicial diet, but was 

 soon taught to eat full-grown squid. 

 Lolii^o npulesccns. By the time of our 

 observations (28 January- 1 February 

 and 1 1 March 1972). her daily diet 

 was 900 kg of squid, dropped frozen 

 into her tank in 9 kg blocks, and her 

 weight gain was almost 40 kg a day. 

 Our behavioral observations were 

 made both from the water's surface 

 and by scuba-diving with Gigi. We 

 also used underwater motion pictures 

 made h\ John .Seeker of Sea World 



when Gigi was about 6 months old. 

 To aid in our interpretation, we have 

 consulted her trainers (Bud Donahoo 

 and Susan Bailey), and we have solicit- 

 ed observations on Gigi and on other 

 gray whales from several of our col- 

 leagues. To them, who are mentioned 

 below, to the Naval Undersea Center, 

 and to the management of Sea World, 

 we are grateful. 



BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS 



Before detailing our observations, 

 we remind the reader that a gray 

 whale's head is roughly triangular in 

 cross section, the gular region being 

 the base while the cheeks form the 

 sides, sloping inwards at about 60° 

 towards the narrow beak-like upper 

 jaw. The curved mouth is at about 

 the middle of the cheeks. The mouth 

 has effectively only lower lips; the 

 upper lips are represented by the 

 rabbet-like recess above the gum line 

 into which the lower lips fit snugly. 



In the course of teaching Gigi to 

 eat squid, trainers Donahoo and Bai- 

 ley taught her to relax the edge of the 

 left lower lip and turn it outward in 

 response to light taps on the head. 

 Food was placed by hand in the open- 

 ing thus created, passing into the 

 throat either through or under the 

 baleen. This was in contrast to the 

 feeding of the artificial liquid diet, 

 when the jaws were opened while 

 accepting the feeding tube; during the 

 hand-feeding of squid, the jaws re- 

 mained closed and the lip was opened. 

 as was also the case later on when one 

 of us thrust an arm down her pharynx. 

 Training Gigi to move her lip volun- 

 tarily was critical, for normally the 

 lip was held so tightly shut that a man 

 could not forcibly pry it open. This 

 training was done while she was 

 grounded in the tank almost empty 

 of water; it was not long before she 

 would thus accept food while swim- 

 ming. Soon thereafter she was feeding 

 freely without the aid of her trainers. 

 Gigi was always fed from the left side 

 (Donahoo has mentioned having been 



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