Scientists discover most blue whales are ‘right-handed’ -- except when they swim upward

Scientists discover most blue whales are ‘right-handed’ -- except when they swim upward

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsFile -- CORVALLIS, Ore. - A team of scientists that used motion-sensing tags to track the movements of more than five dozen blue whales off the California coast discovered that most have a lateralization bias - in other words, they essentially are “right-handed” or “left-handed.”

That didn’t necessarily surprise the researchers because many animals have a right-side bias, and for good reason. In vertebrates, the left hemisphere of the brain controls coordination, predictive motor control and the ability to plan and coordinate actions - like feeding. And the left side of the brain is linked with the right eye.

However, even the “right-handed” whales become left-handed when it comes to one move, the scientists discovered. When blue whales rise from the depths to approach a krill patch near the surface, they perform 360-degree barrel rolls at a steep angle and nearly always roll to the left - even those that normally are “right-handed,” according to Ari Friedlaender, a cetacean expert with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University who …

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(2017-12-04), Scientists discover most blue whales are ‘right-handed’ -- except when they swim upward, NewsFile, 160, ISSN: 0000-0000, BUTTER® ID: 014802811