<br /> <p>Rare drone footage of blue whales feeding has been released by a group of Oregon State University scientists.</p><p>The footage, uploaded on April 18, shows an overhead view of a blue whale “lunge-feeding” – a process where the massive mammal makes a sudden lunge forward to consume a pack of krill.</p><p>According to Leigh Torres, an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, the video also reveals that blue whales are selective about the feeding process.</p><p>“We can see the whale making choices, which is really extraordinary because aerial observations of blue whales feeding on krill are rare,” Torres said in a press release</a>. "The whale bypasses certain krill patches – presumably because the nutritional payoff isn’t sufficient – and targets other krill patches that are more lucrative. We think this is because blue whales are so big, and stopping to lunge-feed and then speeding up again is so energy-intensive, that they try to maximize their effort.”</p><p>In the video, Torres says that drones are a “great way to film [the whales’] behavior without disturbing their behavior at all, unlike other aerial methods like a helicopter or a plane, which can’t hover or make a lot of noise.”</p><br />
