Jarman et al 2018.pdf (341.54 kB)
New determination of prey and parasite species for Northern Indian Ocean blue whales
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 17:58 authored by de Vos, A, Faux, CE, James MarthickJames Marthick, Joanne DickinsonJoanne Dickinson, Jarman, SNBlue whales are little studied, face significant anthropogenic threats and within the Northern Indian Ocean, have a restricted range, making them an archetype for conservation needs of megafauna around the world. We studied feeding behavior of blue whales using dietary DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples. While globally blue whale populations feed predominantly on Euphausiidae, 87% of prey DNA amplicons extracted from fecal samples from this population were sergestid shrimp, demonstrating that blue whales can locate and feed on dense swarms of other types of prey when they occur. Within the Indian Ocean sergestids are present within the top 300m, which correlates with the deep scattering layer observed by hydroacoustics. Studies suggest that this requirement to dive deeper in search of prey likely explains the prevalence of fluke up diving within this population of blue whales relative to other parts of the globe. Furthermore, this study revealed the presence of acanthocephalan endoparasites within the stomach and intestines of the Northern Indian Ocean blue whales. This represents the first record of Acanthocephala in blue whales in the Northern Indian Ocean and highlights the need for further studies on both the ecto- and endoparasitic flora and monitoring of health of these cetaceans for their management and conservation.
History
Publication title
Frontiers in Marine ScienceVolume
5Issue
APRArticle number
104Number
104Pagination
1-8ISSN
2296-7745Department/School
Menzies Institute for Medical ResearchPublisher
Frontiers Research FoundationPlace of publication
SwitzerlandRights statement
Copyright 2018 de Vos, Faux, Marthick, Dickinson and Jarman. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Repository Status
- Open