Current Biology (2016)
Marine mammals have adapted to forage while holding their breath in a suite of aquatic habitats from shallow rivers to deep oceans. The key to tolerate such extensive apnea is…
Temporal and spatial trends in stranding records of cetaceans on the Irish coast, 2002–2014
McGovern, Barry; Culloch, Ross M.; O'Connell, Michael; Berrow, Simon
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (2016)
Using Irish strandings data collected between 2002 and 2014, seasonal and annual trends in the number of strandings for all strandings identified to species level (N = 1480), and for…
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…
Harbour porpoise movement strategy affects cumulative number of animals acoustically exposed to underwater explosions
Aarts, G.; von Benda-Beckmann, A. M.; Lucke, K.; Sertlek, H. Ö.; van Bemmelen, R.; Geelhoed, S. C. V.; Brasseur, S.; Scheidat, M.; Lam, F. P. A.; Slabbekoorn, H.; Kirkwood, R.
Marine Ecology Progress Series (2016)
Anthropogenic sound in the marine environment can have negative consequences for marine fauna. Since most sound sources are intermittent or continuous, estimating how many individuals are exposed over time remains…
Asymmetry of the nasofacial skull in toothed whales (Odontoceti)
Huggenberger, S.; Leidenberger, S.; Oelschläger, H. H. A.
Journal of Zoology (2016)
In this study, the nasal asymmetry of odontocetes (toothed whales) was analyzed morphometrically by placing landmarks on photographed nasofacial skulls from 12 different species and genera that belong to four…
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…
Species diversity and distribution pattern of marine mammals of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman – Iranian waters
Owfi, F.; Braulik, G. T.; Rabbaniha, M.
Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences (2016)
A total of 98 marine mammal records from Iranian coastal waters of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman were compiled of which 66 are previously unpublished new records. Seventy-nine…
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…
Trends of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) density in the southern North Sea
Peschko, Verena; Ronnenberg, Katrin; Siebert, Ursula; Gilles, Anita
Ecological Indicators (2016)
In the southern North Sea, harbour porpoise occurrence increased in recent years after a phase of low abundances during earlier decades. Only very few studies on porpoise presence in the…