Tag Archives: behavior

Is Climate Change Making Gray Whales Picky Eaters?

The Oregon Coast is known for its ruggedness and harsh weather, but also offers a prime opportunity to spot gray whales on their migratory paths. These majestic marine mammals undertake one of the largest migrations of any animal, traveling from the Arctic to Baja California to breed before heading back north along this “whale super-highway.” Despite having the mechanisms to feed in the water column, these benthic specialists prefer bottom feeding, scooping up sand from the seafloor and filtering out invertebrate prey through their baleen, likely targeting locations of high caloric content. However, along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, a behavior known as ‘prey switching’ has been observed, where gray whales feed in the water column instead of their preferred benthic prey, amphipods. Our upcoming guest, Taylor Azizeh, a first-year Ph.D. student at the Marine Mammal Institute, explores what may be driving this prey switching behavior.

Polar regions are among the top locations to be impacted by climate change, which Taylor suspects may be responsible for grey whales switching from benthic to pelagic prey. Changes in bottom water temperature and sediment grain size may result in habitats less favorable for amphipods, leading whales to seek food elsewhere. In response to warming, the distribution of other predators may shift to where they compete for the same food source, or the reduced sea ice cover could result in more productive pelagic waters. How do gray whales, these benthic specialists, adapt to changing food availability?

Gray whale populations often experience boom and bust cycles or unknown mortality events, with the most recent one currently underway. Taylor’s research on the foraging plasticity of gray whales is not only timely, but also employs a holistic approach using a combination of methods to assess the big picture. She plans to use stable isotopes to provide information on what whales are feeding on, but only when combined with GPS tags tracking movement and drone photogrammetry measuring body conditions can one understand where and why. Taylor plans to utilize this combination to ask big picture questions such as whether they’re feeding in areas of high biomass, if they return to those same areas, and how much adaptability can individual gray whales display?

At its core, Taylor’s research delves into the adaptability of gray whales. Gray whales have survived the ice ages, proving their ability to deal with harsh conditions, and Taylor hypothesizes they may be more flexible than we currently understand.

To learn more about Taylor’s passion for these charismatic animals of ecological, social, and cultural importance, the adventure which led here to grad school—from Costa Rica to Ecuador, Denmark, and London—tune in to KBVR 88.7 FM this Sunday, Nov. 3. You can listen to the episode anywhere you listen to your podcasts, including on KBVR, Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else!

Do you trust others, as much as they trust you?

My mother told me never to judge a book by its cover, but our brains do this tens if not hundreds of times a day. Research has shown that seeing a face for just 1/10 second allows enough time for someone to make judgments of a person’s attractiveness, competence, aggressiveness, and trustworthiness. While it is impressive our brains can come to a decision about a face so quickly, how accurate are those assessments? For better or worse, a person’s facial characteristics can predict court decisions, as well as outcomes of elections. Many studies focus on how the interpreter makes these decisions, but what happens to the people who are instantly considered untrustworthy when all you see is a face? Whether we care to acknowledge it, these first-impressions inevitably lead to different life-outcomes, especially if you are judged as having an untrustworthy face.

What kind of facial features can be considered trustworthy or untrustworthy? Here are some examples on a spectrum.

Our guest this evening is Zoe Alley, a 1st year PhD student in the newly formed Psychological Sciences program within the College of Liberal Arts, and she will be tackling these tough questions of how we perceive and understand trust. She is specifically exploring how the first impression of someone’s face can be a predictor, or possibly a driver, of their future life-outcomes. The Golden Rule says to treat others the way you want to be treated; but what happens when everyone around you is unpleasant or treats you with suspicion? You’re more likely to reciprocate those feelings, developing fewer formative relationships early in life, eventually snowballing into awkward social behaviors intensifying later in life so that finding a job or keeping friends are hopeless endeavors. Was this sequence of events caused by the person’s actions toward others, or was it the constant distrust from others that caused these behaviors leading to a negative outcome?

This is a classic chicken or the egg dilemma that we will explore, but first we have to understand how we got here. The Oregon Youth Study began in 1982 with evaluations of participants starting at age 10, and continuing with annual assessments until all 183 males from predominantly lower income neighborhoods reached 35 years old. This study generated a prodigious amount of data that scientists continue to use. One finding was the participants’ real-life behavior explained relatively small but measurable amount of how trustworthy those outside the study perceived them to be once other factors  were controlled (i.e. smiling). This shows a disconnect from how we judge someone, compared to how that person actually behaves. This again begs the question: what happens to those unfortunate souls who are constantly judged negatively and is there anything we can do mitigate this unfortunate pattern?

Here is Zoe Alley who is a 1st year PhD student in the Psychological Sciences program at OSU

Zoe grew up as a native Oregonian and while her childhood passion started with art and expression, it has always focused on how she can help her community. Even though the Oregon Youth Study was focused in the Willamette Valley, understanding these social constructs can help children and adults everywhere. Through this research Zoe hopes to understand how this phenomenon of ‘facial trustworthiness’ works, especially in adolescents, so that we can identify mechanisms to break this vicious cycle and give everyone an equal chance at success. Be sure to tune in for what is sure to be a candid discussion on Sunday June 4th at 7PM on KBVR Corvallis 88.7FM or by listening live.