Latest Marine mammals Stories
The Harderwijk Dolphin Center in the Netherlands announced that a porpoise dolphin has become only the second to give birth in captivity, but the birth has left the people questioning whether its a boy or girl."Mum Amber and her baby, Kwin, are doing fine," the center said in a statement on Thursday.Another porpoise was born in captivity in Denmark in 2007."As we don't know much about newborn porpoises, a team of Danish minders has come to help us," the statement...
Many of Washington State's sea otters are exposed to the same pathogens responsible for causing disease in marine mammal populations in other parts of the country, according to a study published by researchers from NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their partners.While the Washington sea otters do not appear to be suffering negative effects from the pathogens, they still face potential threats from infectious disease due to their relatively...
A new study shows that the population of false killer whales in waters close to Hawaii seems to have declined significantly over the past 20 years, the Associated Press reported.The report said that the dolphin species are likely dropping due to the declining food supplies and their tendency to get caught and injured on the longline fishing lines from commercial fishing vessels that can span 50 miles.Environmental activists recently sued the federal government for allegedly failing to...
Researchers report finding a stronghold for the Irrawaddy, one of the world's rarest freshwater dolphins, deep in the Bangladesh jungles. Scientists counted nearly 6,000 of the dolphins in the South Asian country's Sundarbans mangrove forest adjacent to the Bay of Bengal, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a release. Before the find by the Wildlife Conservation Society there were only a few hundred of the Irrawaddy believed alive. This discovery gives us great hope that there is a...
Researchers say global warming is bringing food stocks closer to shore, causing the mass beaching of whales along Australia's coast, the AFP reported.Last week, nearly 90 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins were beached along the Hamelin Bay on Australia's west coast in the last month.Experts say it took the total number of beached cetaceans in southern Australia beyond 500 in the past four months alone, including a single stranding of almost 200 on King Island.The strandings...
A California wildlife photographer, out on Monterey Bay with a group of fellow professionals, was the only one to capture a sea otter holding a video camera. Enrique Aguirre told The Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel he had the otter in his view finder before he noticed something strange. I was like, did I actually see an otter with a video camera or was I hallucinating?, he said. The otter was floating, holding the camera in its paws, the lens apparently aimed at the photographers on Capt. Yohn...
A U.S.-led study of the fossil of an extinct pregnant whale discovered in Pakistan suggests primitive whales gave birth on land. Researchers said the 47.5-million-year-old fossil reveals how primitive whales gave birth and provides new insights into how whales made the transition from land to sea. The researchers who made the discovery said they were at first perplexed by adult female and fetal bones found together. When we first saw the small teeth, we thought we were dealing with a small...
Researchers reported on Monday, that older mothers may do a better job raising their children than younger, less-experienced moms, amongst killer whales.The researchers looked over 30 years of data to find that calves born to the oldest killer whales were 10 percent more likely to survive the critical first year of life than calves born to younger mothers."Older mothers appear to be better mothers, producing calves with higher survival rates," Eric Ward of the Northwest Fisheries...
Dolphins are the foodies of the ocean, deemed so because of their specific and complicated measures to purge cuttlefish of ink and bone, Australian scientists announced on Friday.A female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin was seen prepping her cuttlefish for consumption in the Spencer Gulf, located in Australia."It's a sign of how well their brains are developed. It's a pretty clever way to get pure calamari without all the horrible bits," Mark Norman, the curator of mollusks at...
The U.S. Geological Survey says central California sea otters risk higher exposure to disease-causing parasites due to the food they eat and where they feed. Researchers said sea otters that eat small marine snails are at a higher risk of exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a potentially deadly protozoal pathogen, than animals that feed exclusively on other prey. Sea otters living along the coast near San Simeon and Cambria are more at risk than sea otters outside that area. Recovery of the sea...
Latest Marine mammals Reference Libraries
The marine otter (Lontra feline) is a member of the weasel family, and can be found in South America. It prefers a habitat in rocky coastal areas, with a range that includes the entire coastline of Chile and extends to southern Peru and Argentina. It has been found on the Falkland Islands, but individuals here do not represent a constant population. Unlike other species of otter, the marine otter chooses to live near waters with high winds and swells. It may use caves and crevices as dens,...
The crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus) is a true seal that can be found around the whole of Antarctica. Its range also includes small areas in South America, New Zealand, Africa, and Australia. It resides on the pack ice zone for the entire year, even as it shifts seasonally, and prefers to stay in the continental shelf area in water with a depth of less than 1,968 feet. Because the populations are so wide spread and are sufficiently mixed, there have been no subspecies found. Because...
The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) is a rare pinniped, or “fin-footed mammal” that can be found in areas of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the Atlantic waters of the Tropic of Cancer. Not much is known about the chosen land habitats of this seal, but until the 20th century, it could be seen relaxing or pup rearing on open beaches. It now dwells in underwater caves and caverns in order to escape human actions including tourism and expansion. The Mediterranean monk...
Profilicollis is a genus of acanthocephalan parasites that are found in crustaceans and shorebirds. Profilicollis parasites use decapod crustaceans as intermediate hosts and species of shorebirds as definitive hosts. The parasite first develops in mole crabs of North and South America. After it infects a mole crab, it becomes dormant until the crab is eaten by a suitable bird, such as a Surf scoter or Herring Gull. Once the parasite has passed through the stomach of the bird, it develops...
The Chinese white dolphin, otherwise known as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, is a species of humpback dolphin that can be found in the waters of Southeast Asia. When breeding, they will travel to the waters around South Africa to Australia. There are currently two recognized subspecies of the Chinese white dolphin. The coloring of the Chinese white dolphin can vary due to age and location. When born, calves are actually black, but will change to grey, then pink with white spotting,...
