Ultra-high foraging rates of harbor porpoises make them vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbance

Wisniewska, Danuta Maria; Johnson, Mark; Teilmann, Jonas; Rojano-Doñate, Laia; Shearer, Jeanne; Sveegaard, Signe; Miller, Lee A.; Siebert, Ursula; Madsen, Peter Teglberg
Current Biology (2016)

The question of how individuals acquire and allocate resources to maximize fitness is central in evolutionary ecology. Basic information on prey selection, search effort, and capture rates are critical for…


Pile driving playback sounds and temporary threshold shift in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena): Effect of exposure duration

Kastelein, Ronald A.; Helder-Hoek, Lean; Covi, Jennifer; Gransier, Robin
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (2016)

High intensity underwater sounds may cause temporary hearing threshold shifts (TTSs) in harbor porpoises, the magnitude of which may depend on the exposure duration. After exposure to playbacks of pile…


Saving the Yangtze finless porpoise: Time is rapidly running out

Huang, Shiang-Lin; Mei, Zhigang; Hao, Yujiang; Zheng, Jinsong; Wang, Kexiong; Wang, Ding
Biological Conservation (2016)

The Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) is the world's only freshwater porpoise and is endemic to the Yangtze River. However, it is now Critically Endangered, with its long-term survival…


Toxoplasma gondii in stranded marine mammals from the North Sea and Eastern Atlantic Ocean: findings and diagnostic difficulties

van de Velde, Norbert; Devleesschauwer, Brecht; Leopold, Mardik; Begeman, Lineke; IJsseldijk, Lonneke; Hiemstra, Sjoukje; IJzer, Jooske; Brownlow, Andrew; Davison, Nicholas; Jauniaux, Thierry; Siebert, Ursula; Dorny, Pierre; De Craeye, Stéphane
Veterinary Parasitology (2016)

The occurrence of the zoonotic protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii in marine mammals remains a poorly understood phenomenon. In this study, samples from 631 marine mammal species and 34 European otters…


Central nervous system disease and genital disease in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) are associated with different herpesviruses

van Elk, Cornelis; van de Bildt, Marco; van Run, Peter; de Jong, Anton; Getu, Sarah; Verjans, Georges; Osterhaus, Albert; Kuiken, Thijs
Veterinary Research (2016)

Herpesvirus infection causes disease of variable severity in many species, including cetaceans. However, little is known about herpesvirus infection in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), despite being widespread in temperate coastal…


Spatially explicit analysis of genome-wide SNPs detects subtle population structure in a mobile marine mammal, the harbor porpoise

Lah, Ljerka; Trense, Daronja; Benke, Harald; Berggren, Per; Gunnlaugsson, Þorvaldur; Lockyer, Christina; Öztürk, Ayaka; Öztürk, Bayram; Pawliczka, Iwona; Roos, Anna; Siebert, Ursula; Skóra, Krzysztof; Víkingsson, Gísli; Tiedemann, Ralph
PLOS ONE (2016)

The population structure of the highly mobile marine mammal, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), in the Atlantic shelf waters follows a pattern of significant isolation-by-distance. The population structure of harbor…