Planet Earth III features BC whales in rare feeding behaviour
The wildlife in BC is one of the most diverse and beautiful in the world, so much so that a pod of humpback whales off the coast of Vancouver was just featured in an episode of Planet Earth III.
The whales were featured in episode seven, titled “Human.” The episode revolves around how animals adapt to survive when faced with competition from human activity, and BC’s whales were filmed doing a behaviour called trap-feeding.
While we can’t describe the behaviour as well as nature documentary icon David Attenborough, trap-feeding is essentially a low-effort way of feeding, which includes tricking the fish.
Trap-feeding happens when fewer fish are in the water, and birds start diving to catch them. When this happens, the whales open their mouths at the surface of the water to look like a dark cave that provides shelter for the fish. The fish then swim into the mouths of the whales, and they get a meal without much effort.
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According to the BBC’s website, it took the film crew six weeks to catch the whales engaging in this behaviour. They filmed from boats and also used drones to capture the footage. They also said that it was the first time multiple whales have been filmed trap-feeding at once.
Even though the whales were filmed doing the same behaviour, producer and director of the series Fredi Davis shared with the BBC that there were still lots of behavioural differences.
āSpending six weeks filming these magnificent creatures I could see that they are all very distinct individuals with different behaviour patterns,” Davis said. “One whale would often be seen rolling around at the surface of the water singing. He preferred to eat krill at night, and sing during the day, whereas most others focused on eating herring during the day.”
With the great whale-watching tours available in Vancouver, maybe we’ll get to see the behaviour in real life.
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