scholarly journals Fin whale singing decreases with increased swimming speed

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 180525
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Clark ◽  
George J. Gagnon ◽  
Adam S. Frankel
Keyword(s):  
Swimming Speed ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Sound Sources ◽  
Fin Whale ◽  
System A ◽  
The Us ◽  
Breeding Condition ◽  
Anthropogenic Sounds ◽  
Free Ranging

The attributes of male acoustic advertisement displays are often related to a performer's age, breeding condition and motivation, but these relationships are particularly difficult to study in free-ranging marine mammals. For fin whale singers, we examined the relationships between a singer's swimming speed, song duration and amount of singing. We used a unique set of fin whale singing and swimming data collected in support of the US Navy's marine mammal monitoring programme associated with the Navy's Integrated Undersea Surveillance System. A goal of the programme is to improve understanding of the potential effects of anthropogenic sound sources on baleen whale behaviours and populations. We found that as whales swam faster, some continued to sing, while others did not. If swimming speed is an indication of male stamina, then singing while swimming faster could be a display by which females and/or other males assess a singer's physical fitness and potential reproductive quality. Results have implications for interpreting fin whale singing behaviour and the possible influences of anthropogenic sounds on fin whale mating strategies and breeding success.

Vitamin A physiology in the precocious harbour seal (Phoca vitulina): a tissue-based biomarker approach

2002 ◽  
Vol 80 (9) ◽  
pp. 1511-1519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizzy Mos ◽  
Peter S Ross
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin A ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Phoca Vitulina ◽  
Retinyl Palmitate ◽  
Harbour Seal ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Reproductive Endocrine ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Free Ranging

Vitamin A is a nutrient essential to all mammals for growth and development, as well as for the maintenance of reproductive, endocrine, and immune systems. Environmental contaminant-related disruption of vitamin A has been observed in many wildlife species and can therefore be used as a biomarker of toxic effects. However, the natural processes regulating vitamin A uptake, storage, and distribution among compartments are poorly understood in marine mammals. In this study, 20 young healthy harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) were captured to establish a compartment-based model providing a foundation for a mechanistic understanding of vitamin A physiology and disruption. Vitamin A (retinol, retinyl palmitate, and (or) retinoic acid) was quantified in blood plasma and in biopsy samples of liver, blubber, and skin. Although the highest concentrations of vitamin A were found in liver, blubber represents a more important storage depot, with an estimated 66% of the total retinoid content of the compartments measured. We suggest that vitamin A physiology in the precocious harbour seal has evolved to deal with high vitamin A availability during a short nursing period and to sustain growth during the postweaning fast. Positive correlations in vitamin A concentrations among liver, blubber, and skin support the use of less invasive biopsy sampling of just blubber or skin, which can provide physiologically relevant information in biomarker studies of free-ranging marine mammals.

scholarly journals Fatal Streptococcus iniae Infection in a Juvenile Free-Ranging Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis)

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3123
Author(s):  
Rebecca Souter ◽  
Anne-Lise Chaber ◽  
Ken Lee ◽  
Aaron Machado ◽  
Jia Lam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Skin Lesions ◽  
Streptococcus Iniae ◽  
Common Dolphin ◽  
Farmed Fish ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Zoonotic Pathogen ◽  
Delphinus Delphis ◽  
Source Of Infection ◽  
Free Ranging

Streptococcus iniae (S. iniae) is a significant aquatic pathogen of farmed fish species, important zoonotic pathogen, and reported cause of disease in captive Amazon River dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) and a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Here we report S. iniae as the cause of subcutaneous abscesses, sepsis and mortality in a juvenile free-ranging short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) found deceased on a metropolitan Australian beach. Body surfaces were covered by multifocal, depressed, deep, irregular cutaneous ulcerations, which microscopically were characterised by ruptured subcutaneous abscesses with intralesional cocci. Routine microbiological investigations revealed a heavy growth of beta-haemolytic Streptococcus sp. identified as Streptococcus iniae in skin lesions as well as from heart blood, the latter supportive of sepsis. Tissues were negative for cetacean morbillivirus and no other disease processes were identified. S. iniae has not been reported in free-ranging marine mammals, nor in Australian delphinids, previously. More notably a pathogen of captive animals, this case report identifies S. iniae as a pathogen of wild dolphins also. In addition to expanding the host reservoir of a significant zoonotic pathogen, determining the source of infection as well as possible consequences for other marine mammals and wild and intensive fish stocks warrants further investigations.

scholarly journals Small Blubber Samples (50 mg) Sufficient for Analyses of 10 Stress and Reproductive Steroid Hormones in Gray and Fin Whales via Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiana Wittmaack ◽  
Jorge Urbán Ramírez ◽  
Daniela Bernot-Simon ◽  
Sergio Martínez-Aguilar ◽  
Seenivasan Subbiah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Liquid Chromatography ◽  
Steroid Hormones ◽  
Endogenous Hormones ◽  
Tissue Mass ◽  
Fin Whale ◽  
Calibration Methods ◽  
Fin Whales ◽  
Fitness And Health ◽  
Free Ranging

Information on stress, reproductive fitness, and health is difficult to obtain in wild cetaceans but critical for conservation and management. The goal of this study was to develop a methodology requiring minimal blubber mass for analysis of reproductive and stress steroid hormones and, hence, suitable for cetacean biopsies. Blubber biopsies and samples were collected from free-ranging and stranded gray and fin whales. Steroid hormones were extracted from blubber samples as small as 50 mg using liquid-liquid extraction methodology developed to handle the high fat content of blubber. Samples were analyzed via liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry for 10 hormones: aldosterone, androstenedione, cortisol, cortisone, corticosterone, 17β-estradiol, estrone, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, progesterone, and testosterone. As part of the optimization, homogenization via bead beating and blade dispersion were compared, and the former found superior. To investigate optimal yet minimal tissue mass required, hormone panels were compared among paired 50, 150, and 400 mg samples, the latter two being commonly reported masses for hormone blubber analysis. Results indicated that 50 mg of blubber was suitable and sometimes superior. Additionally, significant differences in precision values were observed between species, possibly stemming from differences in blubber composition, and relevant to homogenization technique selection and calibration methods that use blubber matrix matches obtained from a species other than the study species. Based on recovery and precision values, our methodology was accurate and precise in the measurement of spiked known quantities for all 10 hormones, confirming the methodology capabilities in 50 mg blubber mass in both species. Altogether, and in our specific sample sets, all endogenous hormones, except corticosterone, were identified above the detection limit in 50 mg gray whale blubber samples while all endogenous hormones, except aldosterone, cortisone, estrone, and progesterone, were detected in 50 mg fin whale blubber samples. We present a robust methodology for the analysis of multiple reproductive and stress steroid hormones in minimal masses of cetacean blubber compatible with small biopsies. Finally, we identified statistically significant differences in corticosteroid concentrations between stranded and free ranging animals.

DIVING BEHAVIOR AND SWIMMING SPEED OF A FREE-RANGING HARBOR PORPOISE, PHOCOENA PHOCOENA

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiji Otani ◽  
Yasuhiko Naito ◽  
Akiko Kato ◽  
Akito Kawamura
Keyword(s):  
Swimming Speed ◽  
Diving Behavior ◽  
Phocoena Phocoena ◽  
Harbor Porpoise ◽  
Free Ranging

Intra- and inter-specific dominance relationships among arctic and snowshoe hares

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon M. Fitzgerald ◽  
Lloyd B. Keith
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Interference Competition ◽  
Agonistic Interaction ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Geographic Ranges ◽  
Competition Theory ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
Snowshoe Hares ◽  
Breeding Condition ◽  
Free Ranging

The geographic ranges of arctic and snowshoe hares (Lepus arcticus and L. americanus) rarely overlap. In Newfoundland and elsewhere in North America, arctic hares occupy treeless barrens or tundra, whereas snowshoe hares inhabit forest. We explored the hypothesis that such allopatry reflects interference competition, an agonistic interaction in which snowshoe hares are behaviourally dominant. To assess both inter- and intra-specific dominance, we conducted a series of dyadic trials in outdoor pens and also observed interactions of free-ranging individuals. Five testable predictions were inferred, a priori, from competition theory and previous leporid studies: (i) heavier individuals are dominant, (ii) adults dominate juveniles, (iii) females dominate males when both are in breeding condition, (iv) males dominate females when neither are in breeding condition, and (v) adults in breeding condition dominate those that are not. With snowshoe hares, tests for predictions i and ii were inconclusive, and iii was probably verified (P = 0.03). With arctic hares, test results were inconclusive for i, verified for ii (P < 0.01), and rejected for iii and iv, dominance being unrelated to sex or breeding condition. Prediction v could not be tested intraspecifically, but arctic hares dominated snowshoe hares in 84 of 85 dyads, including those where snowshoes weighed more, or were in breeding condition and arctic hares were not. It is, therefore, highly unlikely that interference competition with snowshoe hares is responsible for the current restriction of arctic hares to barrens and tundra.

Body temperature fluctuations in free-ranging eastern foxsnakes (Elaphe gloydi) during cold-water swimming

2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie A MacKinnon ◽  
Anna Lawson ◽  
E D Stevens ◽  
Ronald J Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Water Temperature ◽  
Swimming Speed ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Temperature Fluctuations ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Clear Trend ◽  
Thermal Biology ◽  
Rapid Temperature ◽  
Free Ranging

We examined the thermal biology of free-ranging terrestrial eastern foxsnakes (Elaphe gloydi Conant, 1940) that were voluntarily swimming in cold water during spring, in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada. Using temperature-sensitive radiotelemetry, we recorded body temperatures of foxsnakes during 12 cold-water swims, and subsequent warming on shore. During these swims, water temperatures were from 11 to 22 °C and distances of 85–1330 m were travelled. Snakes that were in cold water long enough equilibrated with water temperature and did not maintain a body temperature above ambient. The largest observed drop in body temperature was 22.6 °C (over 11 min) and the largest increase was 23 °C (over 66 min). Such large, rapid temperature fluctuations have not previously been reported in detail from snakes in the field. Twice as many telemetry observations as expected occurred between 1200 and 1400, suggesting that snakes chose to swim midday. Additionally, our results suggest that foxsnakes bask to raise their body temperature prior to swimming in cold water. We compared swimming speed and the coefficient of temperature change among foxsnakes and other snake species. Swimming speed was positively correlated with water temperature, similar to other findings. We found no clear trend between mass and the coefficients of cooling and warming; however, snakes cooled in water 2.8–8.6 times faster than they warmed in air.

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