Animal migration can be defined as a persistent to and from movement of populations between areas... more Animal migration can be defined as a persistent to and from movement of populations between areas where conditions are alternately favorable or unfavorable (Dingle and Drake 2007). This definition invokes time and space, making it possible to identify patterns in populations that perform these regular movements. In the marine environment, changing conditions may occur seasonally, leading some species of marine vertebrates to adjust their life history to a migratory dynamic, often moving great distances between high resource areas (for feeding and/or breeding) (Corkeron and Connor 1999). There is unequivocal evidence for this migration pattern in humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae (Rasmussen et al. 2007) and some indications of a similar migration in fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus (Mizroch et al. 1984); thus, it has been argued by analogy that the pattern holds also for blue whales (Mackintosh 1966). However, information about migratory movements is still speculative for blue whales and mostly inferred by indirect methods such as genetics and acoustics (e.g., Stafford et al. 1999, LeDuc et al. 2007, Samaran et al. 2013, Torres-Florez et al. 2014a). Also satellite tag data has yielded information on migratory movements in the Indian Ocean, northeast Pacific, and southeast Pacific (Hucke-Gaete 2004, Bailey et al. 2009, Double et al. 2014).
ABSTRACT 1. Blue whale locations in the Southern Hemisphere and northern Indian Ocean were obtain... more ABSTRACT 1. Blue whale locations in the Southern Hemisphere and northern Indian Ocean were obtained from catches (303 239), sightings (4383 records of 8058 whales), strandings (103), Discovery marks (2191) and recoveries (95), and acoustic recordings. 2. Sighting surveys included 7 480 450 km of effort plus 14 676 days with unmeasured effort. Groups usually consisted of solitary whales (65.2%) or pairs (24.6%); larger feeding aggregations of unassociated individuals were only rarely observed.
ABSTRACT: Animal movement is a central topic in ecology, as movements are crucial to habitat sele... more ABSTRACT: Animal movement is a central topic in ecology, as movements are crucial to habitat selection, foraging and spatial population ecology. Movement is a primary mechanism coupling animals to their environment, as organisms respond to environmental heterogeneity at different spatio-temporal scales. The fjord system in southern Chile is highly heterogeneous and sustains poorly known dolphin species, including the sympatric Chilean Cephalorhynchus eutropia and Peale's Lagenorhynchus australis dolphins.
Animal migration can be defined as a persistent to and from movement of populations between areas... more Animal migration can be defined as a persistent to and from movement of populations between areas where conditions are alternately favorable or unfavorable (Dingle and Drake 2007). This definition invokes time and space, making it possible to identify patterns in populations that perform these regular movements. In the marine environment, changing conditions may occur seasonally, leading some species of marine vertebrates to adjust their life history to a migratory dynamic, often moving great distances between high resource areas (for feeding and/or breeding) (Corkeron and Connor 1999). There is unequivocal evidence for this migration pattern in humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae (Rasmussen et al. 2007) and some indications of a similar migration in fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus (Mizroch et al. 1984); thus, it has been argued by analogy that the pattern holds also for blue whales (Mackintosh 1966). However, information about migratory movements is still speculative for blue whales and mostly inferred by indirect methods such as genetics and acoustics (e.g., Stafford et al. 1999, LeDuc et al. 2007, Samaran et al. 2013, Torres-Florez et al. 2014a). Also satellite tag data has yielded information on migratory movements in the Indian Ocean, northeast Pacific, and southeast Pacific (Hucke-Gaete 2004, Bailey et al. 2009, Double et al. 2014).
ABSTRACT 1. Blue whale locations in the Southern Hemisphere and northern Indian Ocean were obtain... more ABSTRACT 1. Blue whale locations in the Southern Hemisphere and northern Indian Ocean were obtained from catches (303 239), sightings (4383 records of 8058 whales), strandings (103), Discovery marks (2191) and recoveries (95), and acoustic recordings. 2. Sighting surveys included 7 480 450 km of effort plus 14 676 days with unmeasured effort. Groups usually consisted of solitary whales (65.2%) or pairs (24.6%); larger feeding aggregations of unassociated individuals were only rarely observed.
ABSTRACT: Animal movement is a central topic in ecology, as movements are crucial to habitat sele... more ABSTRACT: Animal movement is a central topic in ecology, as movements are crucial to habitat selection, foraging and spatial population ecology. Movement is a primary mechanism coupling animals to their environment, as organisms respond to environmental heterogeneity at different spatio-temporal scales. The fjord system in southern Chile is highly heterogeneous and sustains poorly known dolphin species, including the sympatric Chilean Cephalorhynchus eutropia and Peale's Lagenorhynchus australis dolphins.
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