Reference no: EM133833658

Question

"One thing that I found interesting was how beaked whales forage by suction. I was a bit more surprised to see this due to them being lumped with toothed whales, but their strategy adopts similar function to baleen whales. It is a super cool and advanced adaptation that I was not expecting to learn about.

Explain why filter feeding by Balaenidae is considered "marine grazing". The act of filter feeding of Balaenidae is considered marine grazing due to the slow nature of the filter-feeding. Balaenidae species will typically swim through large heaps of plankton or small fish, filtering through the water as they go. These actions are not rapid, and could be compared to terrestrial animal grazing. Cows for example, do not feed quickly, but rather meander through pastures eating as they go. Baleen whales are no different to this, as their baleen plates rake through their prey items, which could be defined as their pelagic "pasture"."