Cumberland Sound, a sauna shelter for bowhead whales in need of low exfoliation

It was an trusting advance of remoteness when Canadian researchers stumbled on an disdainful shelter for whales — and held some bowheads that, they determined, were exfoliating their skin in a waters off Nunavut. 

The discovery, described in a study published Thursday in a biography Plos One, explains bizarre behaviour by a whales that has often undetermined Inuit hunters and blurb fishers.

Back in 2014, researchers from a University of British Columbia noticed a whales frolicking around Cumberland Sound, a current only off of Baffin Island near Pangnirtung, Nunavut.

The whales danced in a water, rambling and branch and fluttering their flippers in a air.

Cumberland Sound is like a salt-water sauna shelter for bowhead whales. They massage off passed skin on a vast boulders in a shoal coastal waters. (Submitted by Ricky Kilabuk )

“We would see whales rolling around… on arise we would hear unequivocally shrill vocalizations that sounded roughly like a moan,” pronounced Sarah Fortune, a PhD tyro and a study’s lead author.

“We were unequivocally perplexed,” pronounced Fortune, who primarily set out to observe whale feeding patterns.

She ruled out mating as an reason since a whales were sparse via a bay. Then they suspicion a whales were only socializing.

Bowhead whales, a reptile with a longest lifespan, can live adult to 200 years. (VDOS Global LLC )

But when they saw vast pieces of skin bark divided from a whales’ bodies, it clicked. The whales were rubbing off passed skin on boulders in a shoal water. They were exfoliating and Cumberland Sound was, in a way, a hulk salt-water spa.

Later, in 2016, they researchers went back. Aerial worker videos reliable their supposition — that a whales were, in fact, enchanting in some rock-rubbing action.

“They used these rocks roughly like a pumice stone,” pronounced Fortune.

Why they rock-rub

Molting — when an animal sheds aged skin, hair or feathers — was known in beluga, Southern right whales, and bowhead whales off a seashore of Russia. But very small was famous about it with bowhead whales in a Eastern Canada and a West Greenland area.

The investigate indicates that bowhead whales select to molt, or rock-rub, in shoal waters where it tends to be warmer.

Exfoliating in comfortable coastal water promotes blood flow, bringing nutrients and hormones that foster skin growth, according to a study.

Bowhead whales skin in Cumberland Sound, Nunavut1:04

The commentary are critical in a prolonged run, says Fortune.

“We know that their habitats are changing fast with a decrease of sea ice… In sequence to assistance with charge of Eastern Canada, West Greenland bowhead whale population, it’s unequivocally critical to know when, where and since whales go.”

The biggest hazard to this race is the northward emigration of torpedo whales, due to decreases in sea ice cover, says Fortune.

“So torpedo whales are a substantially a biggest predator of bowhead whales currently.” 

Pangnirtung, Nunavut is a village of about 1,400 people. Many locals hunt in circuitously Cumberland Sound. (Submitted by Sarah Fortune)

Thickest skin, longest life

Bowhead whales, a reptile with a longest lifespan, can live adult to 200 years and were nicknamed “rock-nose whales” by whalers, since they would mostly rest their chins on vast rocks.

Bowheads also have a thickest weep of any mammal, so they’re really good insulated, says Fortune.

• DFO studies suspected boost in Nunavut torpedo whales
• Nunavik girl harpoons 14-metre bowhead on first hunt
• Bowhead whales’ genome might offer clues to aging gracefully

The subsequent step is to request a skin conditions of a whales to pinpoint accurately when molting occurs.

“We’d like to work with a internal partners … and have them request a skin condition of a whale over time.”

Sarah Fortune is a PhD tyro during University of British Columbia, and a lead author for a investigate on bowhead molting behaviour. (Submitted by David Best)

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/bowhead-whales-exfoliate-cumberland-sound-nunavut-1.4416539?cmp=rss