Deepest Diving Mammal: Cuvier's Beaked Whales Search For Food When Diving, Study Shows

(Photo : Pexels/Andre Estevez)

Scientists have discovered a species of whale that has been considered as the deepest-diving mammal.

A Live Science report said that the Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), which are described as mid-size whales that live in temperate and tropical waters, are now categorized as the deepest-diving marine mammal after it was documented to be diving in waters as deep as 9,816 feet.

It is possible that these whales were searching for food or preys when they dive, however, it is still uncertain what were they eating underwater.

Extreme divers

According to a study, these beaked whales are known to be extreme divers.

To learn more about the animal's diving capability, researchers then utilized some satellite-linked tags in order to record the diving behavior as well as the locations of eight Ziphius cavirostris off the Southern California coast for at least three months.

Amid their exceptional diving capabilities, scientists often find it difficult to understand the behavior of these whales, including their peculiar preference for deep water habitat that is typically far from the shore.

"Despite their limitations, these data suggest Ziphius routinely conduct some of the deepest and longest dives of any mammal, many of which exceed the estimated aerobic dive limit for the species by a factor of two or more. Ziphius also appear unusually sensitive to acoustic disturbance," the study indicated.

The study also stated that of the eight whales, one was found to have stayed underwater for more than two hours.

Marine scientist Nicola Quick said whales were able to be successful on staying in these long and extreme dives because their blood has high concentrations of the proteins myoglobin and hemoglobin. These substance have allowed them to be capable of possessing a lot of oxygen.

Further, these whales have this characteristic of limiting their blood flows to the outer parts of their body in order to make sure that their vital organs will acquire enough oxygen.

Quick also pointed out that whales usually need a slow metabolism in order for them to not use all of their oxygen at once. The expert further said the marine mammals seemed to glide a lot while they were swimming.

Meanwhile, Quick found out that whales would most likely need a way "to quickly buffer out the lactic acid their muscles produce while swimming." It is, however, unclear how these marine mammals do this.

Withstanding pressure

According to experts, deep-diving mammals need to have this characteristic of being able to withstand the pressure that is experienced whenever they are thousands of feet underwater.

Studies have shown that the hardest things to keep open in high pressure are the lungs because these are pockets of air that could easily collapse whenever experiencing an intense pressure.

However, for diving marine mammals, they tend to have the ability to flatten out their lungs whenever they dive so that they could decrease the amount of air space, which they have to keep open under pressure.

Scientists said the research on the diving of this mammal resulted in 3732 hr of dive data with associated regional movements.

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