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True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) in Macaronesia

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Centre for Research into Ecological Modelling (CREEM), University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
2 Dept. Animal Biology, Edaphology and Geology, University of La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
3 Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Archipelago (SECAC), Arrecife, Spain
4 Institute of Marine Research, University of the Azores, Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Horta, Portugal
5 Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, United States
6 Dolphinarium, Zoo Duisburg, Duisburg, Germany
7 SMRU, University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom
8 Cetacean, Canarias Conservacion, La Laguna, Canary Island
9 Department of marine mammals, Canarias Conservación. Cetacean & Sea Turtle Research Society, La Laguna, Canary Islands, spain
10 Whale Watch Azores, Horta, Azores, Portugal
11 M.E.E.R. e.V., Berlin, Germany
12 M.E.E.R., La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
13 World Cetacean Alliance, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom
14 CetaceanWatching Lda, Madalena do Pico, Azores, Portugal
15 Scottish Ocean Institute, University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.1785v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Biodiversity, Genetics, Taxonomy, Zoology
Keywords
Ziphiidae, cytochrome b, mtDNA, genetics, colouration patterns, phenotype, North Atlantic
Copyright
© 2016 Aguilar de Soto et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Aguilar de Soto N, Martín V, Silva M, Edler R, Reyes C, Carrillo M, Schiavi A, Morales T, García-Ovide B, Sanchez-Mora A, Garcia-Tavero N, Steiner L, Scheer M, Gockel R, Walker D, Villa E, Szlama P, Carroll E. 2016. True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) in Macaronesia. PeerJ Preprints 4:e1785v1

Abstract

The True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus, True 1913) is a poorly studied member of the speciose Ziphiidae family. Its distribution in the North Hemisphere is thought to be restricted to the temperate or warm temperate waters of the North Atlantic, while a small number of stranding records from the Southern Hemisphere suggest a wider distribution, extending from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to South Africa, Australia and the Tasman Sea coast of New Zealand. Here we i) report the first molecular confirmation of the occurrence of True´s beaked whales around the Azores and Canary Islands (Macaronesian ecoregion), the species’ southern limit in the northeast Atlantic; ii) describe a new colouration for this species; and iii) contribute to the sparse worldwide database of live sightings, including the first underwater video, of this species. In November 2012, a 390 cm male True’s beaked whale stranded in El Hierro, Canary Islands. In July 2004, a subadult male True’s beaked whale was found floating dead near Faial, Azores. Species identification was confirmed in both cases using mitochondrial DNA control region and cytochrome b gene markers. The whale that stranded in the Canary Islands had a clearly delimited white area on its head, extending posteriorly from the tip of the beak to cover the blowhole dorsally and the gular grooves ventrally. This colouration contrasts with previous descriptions for the species and it may be rare, but it demonstrates that True´s beaked whales show variable colourations in the North Atlantic. This is confirmed by sightings data. Given the presence of this species around the Azores and the Canary Islands, it would be expected that True´s beaked whales also occur in the area between these archipelagos, including the islands of Madeira.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

S1. Underwater video of True´s beaked whales recorded off the Azores by R. Edler within the Master Mint program (Sighting 1, Azores, Table 1)

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1785v1/supp-1

S2. Gervais´ beaked whales in a group of four whales breaching repetitively in the Canary Islands, recorded by Roland Gockel (M.E.E.R.)

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1785v1/supp-2

Additional Information

Competing Interests

The authors have not competing interests regarding this work.

Author Contributions

Natacha Aguilar de Soto conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Vidal Martín performed the experiments, analyzed the data, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Monica Silva performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Roland Edler performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Cristel Reyes performed the experiments, analyzed the data, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Manuel Carrillo performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Agustina Schiavi performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Talia Morales performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Belen García-Ovide performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Anna Sanchez-Mora performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Nerea Garcia-Tavero performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Lisa Steiner performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Michael Scheer performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Roland Gockel performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Dylan Walker performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Enrico Villa performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Petra Szlama performed the experiments, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Emma Carroll conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Animal Ethics

The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):

Data were gathered from stranded whales with permits from the governments of the Azores and of El Hierro (Canary Islands). Authorization numbers were Permit nº 4/CN/2004, issued by Environment Directorate of the Azores and Authorization 7021/12_dic_2012 issued by the Cabildo of El Hierro.

Further data are sightings in the wild collected from permitted platforms of opportunity (whale watching boats and ferries). These did not require institutional permits for scientific data collection.

Field Study Permissions

The following information was supplied relating to field study approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):

Data were gathered from stranded whales with permits from the governments of the Azores and of the Canary Islands

DNA Deposition

The following information was supplied regarding the deposition of DNA sequences:

Accession numbers will be uploaded to GenBank prior to publication

Data Deposition

The following information was supplied regarding data availability:

The only raw data are the photographs and video.

Funding

Stranding data collection in the Canary Islands was funded by the Canary Islands Government, while in Azores it was funded by FCT and FRCT, through TRACE-PTDC/MAR/74071/2006 and MAPCET-M2.1.2/F/012/2011 [FEDER, COMPETE, QREN European Social Fund, and Proconvergencia Açores/EU Program]. MAS is supported by an FCT-Investigator contract [funded by POPH, QREN European Social Fund and the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education]. ELC is supported by a Newton International Fellowship from the Royal Society of London. NAS was funded during data collection of this work by the EU-FP7 Marie Curie project SOUNDMAR and she is currently funded by project ECOSOUND within the Horizon 2020 EU program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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True´s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) in Macaronesia
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