Secret of grey whales save from extinction

Collaboration between researchers from the University of California in Berkeley (UCB) and the Smithsonian Institution found that the gray whales made it through the cycle of global warming and global cooling in the past because they change eating patterns. When their lives are threatened, these animals eat a more varied than usual. This makes them able to survive and avoid extinction like many other animal species.

From research, it is estimated gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) have used these tactics changing eating patterns for several million years. Although direct evidence is obtained only covers the last 120,000 years, researchers believe this conclusion applies also in the past.

For information, original food gray whales are a type of worms and amphipods that live on the seabed. However, now the animals began to eat krill and herring, as baleen whales. "This strategy proved successful to make them evolve and survive against global warming," said David Lindberg, a biologist from the UCB.

This finding is good news for gray whales that seem to have better durability against evolution than previously thought. "This could make them pass through climate change is predicted to occur within the next century is marked by rising sea levels as much as several meters," said Nicholas Pyenson, curator of the Smithsonian Institution. "Apparently, the gray whales will be one of the species that will successfully pass climate change will come," said Pyenson.