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Understanding how much energy animals use in their daily lives is important to assess how they respond to environmental challenges. However, for large marine mammals like sperm whales, direct measurements of energy expenditure are not feasible. In this study, we addressed this challenge combining field data with indirect indicators of energy use, such as respiration rates and body acceleration, to estimate, for the first time, the daily energy expenditure of sperm whales living in social units.

Our results provide new insights into the energetic demands of these deep-diving animals and help clarify how changes in behaviour may translate into energetic costs. 

This is relevant in the context of environmental and anthropogenic stressors, such as changes in prey availability or human activities, as it improves our ability to predict how such pressures can affect individual condition and ultimately, population dynamics. This work helps improve the scientific tools used to link individual responses to disturbance with broader population-level impacts. 

The article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/coag024