"Blow" of the Pilot Whale
C. Robert Olsen 1,
Robert Elsner 2,
Frank C. Hale 3, and
David W. Kenney 4
1 Respiratory Research Laboratory, Veterans Administration Center, Los Angeles, California 90073, and Department of Medicine, University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles 90024
2 Physiological Research Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92037
3 Veterans Administration Center, Los Angeles, and Department of Physiology, University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles 90024
4 Scripps Institution of Oceanography
A captive pilot whale emptied as much as 88 percent of lung gas passively, without the aid of expiratory muscles. Level or decreasing pressures in the esophagus during expiration, and in the blowhole at the onset of expiration, revealed the driving force of expiration to be solely elastic recoil. Active muscular reexpansion of the lungs ensued immediately. Expiration and inspiration were completed in about I second.
