Journal
MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE
Volume 30, Issue 1, Pages 1-19Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/mms.12015
Keywords
pilot whale; Globicephala melas; diet; northeast Atlantic; stomach content analysis
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Education
- Programa Nacional de Movilidad de Recursos Humanos de Investigacion [PR-2010-0518]
- Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia [SFRH/BD/38735/2007]
- SafeSea [PT 0039]
- Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism
- European Union
- Direccion Xeral de Conservacion da Natureza of the Xunta de Galicia
- Defra
- Marine Scotland
- [MarPro-Life09 NAT/PT/000038]
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [SFRH/BD/38735/2007] Funding Source: FCT
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There is little previous information on feeding habits of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) in the northeast Atlantic. The present study analyzed stomach contents of pilot whales stranded in Portugal (n=6), Galicia (northwest Spain) (n=32), and Scotland (United Kingdom) (n=10), from 1990 to 2011. These animals ranged from 213 to 555cm in length (24 females, 19 males and 5 of unknown sex). The main prey identified were cephalopods of the families Octopodidae and Ommastrephidae, the former being numerically more important in Iberia (Portugal and Galicia) and the latter more important in Scotland, with Iberian whales also showing a more diverse diet. Multivariate analysis revealed evidence of geographical and seasonal variation in diet. Generalized Additive Modeling results indicated that more octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) were eaten in Iberia than in Scotland, more in the first half of the year, and more in larger whales. Numbers of ommastrephid squids in the stomach decreased over the study period and varied with season and whale length. This study confirms cephalopods as the main prey of pilot whales, as previously reported, although our results also suggest that, in the northeast Atlantic, ommastrephid squid are largely replaced as the main prey by octopods at lower latitudes.
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