Journal
MAMMALIAN BIOLOGY
Volume 80, Issue 4, Pages 298-302Publisher
ELSEVIER GMBH
DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2015.01.003
Keywords
Pseudorca crassidens; False killer whale; Trophic habits; delta C-13; delta N-15; Tierra del Fuego
Categories
Funding
- Committee for Research and Exploration (CRE) of the National Geographic Society
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas of Argentina (CONICET)
- Cetacean Society International (CSI)
- Sigma-Xi Committee
- Conservation and Research Opportunities (CREO)
- Ministerio de Salud y Ambiente, Secretaria de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable, Buenos Aires, Argentina [029884, 029885]
- Carnegie Institution of Washington
- W.M. Keck Foundation
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The false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) is a highly social top predator difficult to study in the wild because of its wide-ranging oceanic habits. Mass strandings offer good opportunities to gather ecological information about cetacean species. In this study we analyze a possible isotopic (delta C-13 and delta N-15) variation in bone collagen among individual false killer whales that mass stranded on the south shore of the Strait of Magellan, Chile, in 1989, in relation to their ontogenetic classes, sex and total body length. We found an isotopic enrichment in delta C-13 and delta N-15 values from young and smaller to older and larger individuals, respectively. These isotopic shifts may reflect differences in foraging and diving capabilities, enabling older and larger individuals to feed more deeply in the water column and/or on larger prey. The lack of isotopic differences between females and males may suggests little evidence for sex-related resource partitioning in this group, as result of a possible coordination during feeding activities, e.g. food sharing as previous studies have found. We also found an important isotopic effect of lactation in both the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of nursing calves, probably due to a prolonged nursing period (from 19 month to two years). This study integrate ecological information from several years to lifetime in relation to sex and total body length, obtaining information on possible changes linked to the development of foraging capabilities in false killer whale. (C) 2015 Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Saugetierkunde. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
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