PacMam Podcast

Join Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) scientists to learn about different marine mammals each episode! We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species. Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!

www.pacmam.org

This week: Pygmy killer whale

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver

Music by Josh Burns

Sources:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/pygmy-killer-whale

https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/2021-08/2020-Pacific-SARS-Pygmy.pdf

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=61

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/pygmy-killer-whale/

https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-species/pygmy-killer-whales-hawaii/

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Feresa_attenuata/https://www.marinebio.org/species/pygmy-killer-whales/feresa-attenuata/

Underwater video!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsEo6bXFoc&t=8s

New Research:

• Alvarez Aleman et al – First report of pygmy killer whales in Cuba - https://new.aquaticmammalsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/47.1-Alvarez-Aleman-1.pdf

• Berrow et al 2020 – First sighting off Cabo Verde – Atlantic African coast - https://www.scvz.org/zoolcv/Zoologia%20Caboverdiana%20Vol.%208%20No.%202%20complete%20issue.pdf#page=22

• Vanderzee et al – Underwater photos evaluate prevalence of injury - https://cascadiaresearch.org/files/Vanderzee_etal2019WMMC.pdf

• Currie et al 2021 – Rapid weight loss in free ranging pygmy killer whales - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-87514-2

• Yahn (Shelby) et al. 2022 – sexually dimorphic characteristics of short-finned pilot, pygmy killer, melon headed, false killer using fin and body morphometrics - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mms.12963

• Pulis et al. 2018 – Movements and dive patterns of pygmy killer whales released in Gulf of Mexico after Rehab - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eric-Pulis/publication/327669759_Movements_and_Dive_Patterns_of_Pygmy_Killer_Whales_Feresa_attenuata_Released_in_the_Gulf_of_Mexico_Following_Rehabilitation/links/5ceeaea8a6fdcc8475f62e3f/Movements-and-Dive-Patterns-of-Pygmy-Killer-Whales-Feresa-attenuata-Released-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico-Following-Rehabilitation.pdf?origin=journalDetail&_tp=eyJwYWdlIjoiam91cm5hbERldGFpbCJ9

www.pacmam.org

This week: Ross seal

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver

Music by Josh Burns

Sources:

https://www.asoc.org/learn/ross-seals/

https://www.pinnipeds.org/seal-information/species-information-pages/the-phocid-seals/ross-seal

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ommatophoca_rossii/

https://seaworld.org/animals/facts/mammals/ross-seal/

https://oceaninfo.com/animals/ross-seal/

https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/animals/seals/ross-seal/

https://animalia.bio/ross-sealhttps://marinemammalscience.org/facts/ommatophoca-rossii/

New Research:

• Brault et al 2019 – Trophic position and foraging ecology - https://www.int-res.com/articles/feature/m611p001.pdf

• Wege et al 2021 Distribution and habitat suitability of Ross seals in warming ocean - https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.659430/full

• Bester et al. 2020: Ross seal distribution in the Weddell Sea: fact and fallacy - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-019-02610-4

• Wege et al 2023 – The nightlife of a Ross seal - https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/C5A2A625A3D0733433C8D0D48BD49B98/S0954102022000438a.pdf/the-nightlife-of-a-ross-seal-diving-and-haul-out-behaviour-from-the-eastern-weddell-sea.pdf

• Loza et al 2017 – sensory anatomy of the most aquatic seal - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0489

Every animal has to balance the cost of foraging, with the benefit of what they get out of it. They have to make sure the effort is worth the reward! For predators, this means how much energy they expend in the hunt, vs. how much energy they are getting out of the prey the capture. Harbor porpoises generally feed on a lot of small fish, but have a very high metabolism. So they need to eat a lot, and that takes time. In this paper we discuss why this seemingly not effecient strategy is actually pretty effecient and why. For harbor porpoises this strategy is energetically pretty cheap, if not time consuming!

Paper is freely available here: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adj7132

This week: Pacific White Sided Dolphin

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver

Music by Josh Burns

Sources:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/pacific-white-sided-dolphinhttps://thewhaletrail.org/wt-species/pacific-white-sided-dolphin/

https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/animal-care/learn-about-marine-mammals/cetaceans/pacific-white-sided-dolphin

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=pacificwhitesideddolphin.main

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/pacific-white-sided-dolphin/

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Lagenorhynchus_obliquidens/

New Research:

• Rosser et al. 2022 – Calf directed aggression, infanticide? - https://www.aquaticmammalsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/48.3-Rosser.pdf

• Waite and Shelden 2018 – Distribution in Eastern N Pacific - https://bioone.org/journals/northwestern-naturalist/volume-99/issue-2/NWN17-15.1/The-Northern-Extent-of-Pacific-White-Sided-Dolphin-iLagenorhynchus-obliquidens/10.1898/NWN17-15.1.short

• Sekiya et al 2024 – Anatomy https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ar.25284

• Mishima et al. 2019 – Pulsed calls as contact calls- https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article-abstract/146/1/409/994113/Pulsed-call-sequences-as-contact-calls-in-Pacific?redirectedFrom=fulltext

• Suzuki et al. 2023 – Genomics shows genetically isolated population in Sea of Japan https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.16797• Kanes et al 2024 – Seasonal and diel patterns in pusled calls near Barkley Canyon - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mms.13055• Ashe et al 2021 – Natural and Anthropogenic mortalitiy - https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.606876/full?field&journalName=Frontiers_in_Marine_Science&id=606876

Social Struture in BC

The Pacmam team got to go on an amazing trip this June - for our 10 year anniversary we all went to Alaska! We all had marine mammals and behaviors we wanted to see. We didn't see everything, but we saw a lot - and all checked off boxes on seeing a particular marine mammal we hadn't seen in the wild before. Join us to hear about what species and behaviors we got to see, and what Alaska was like. We highly recommend visiting Alaska, so much to see, on land and on the water!

Note: we talk about Happywhale, a platform where you can upload photos of humpback whales and get them identified, check it out here: https://happywhale.com/home

Check out our Facebook and Instagram to see the whales we got pictures of on our trip!

We discuss a little about the biology, behavior and fun facts about each species. Have fun and learn about marine mammals with PacMam!

www.pacmam.org

This week: Pygmy Sperm Whale

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver

Music by Josh Burns

Sources:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/pygmy-sperm-whale

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/pygmy-sperm-whale/

https://www.acsonline.org/pygmy-sperm-whalehttps://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/pygmy-sperm-whale/

https://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/pygmy_sperm_whale

New Research

• Benites-Palomino et al 2019 New bulky faced pygmy sperm whale from the late Miocene of Peru https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2019.1728538

• Song et al 2017: Influence of air-filled structures on wave propagation and beam formation https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article-abstract/142/4/2443/853827/The-influence-of-air-filled-structures-on-wave?redirectedFrom=fulltext

• Staudinger et al 2013 – Foraging ecology and niche overlap in pygmy and dwarf in US mid-Atlantic coast https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mms.12064

• Brentano and Petry 2020 – Marine debris ingestion and human impacts in Brazil https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X1930743X

• Erwin et al 2017 – High diversity and unique composition of gut microbiomes https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-07425-z

We are excited to get you a sneak peak into our next paper, first authored by our Research Assistant Ciera! She has spent over a year doing photo-ID of every seal photo we have between 2015-2019, creating our catalogue and analyzing the data. In this paper we look at the site fidelity and seasonality of harbor seals that use Burrows Pass. What are the results? Let's just say that individuality reigns! Join us as we discuss the variation in who returns, and when and how often, and what this means for our understanding of the in-water behavior of harbor seals.

Special shout out to our interns who have assisted with the project, helping to confirm seal identifications - thank you!

Globally there is currently one speices of Killer whale, Orcinus Orca. However they are divided into many different ecotypes based on their foraging, physical, behavioral and cultural differences. There has long been varying amounts of evidence that some of these ecotypes deserve status as at least a sub-species, if not fully separate species. However none have to date been recognized, mostly due to lack of a multitude of clear evidence. But that has changed with the Resident (fish eating) and Bigg's (aka transients, mammal eating) killer whales in the Eastern North Pacific. A new paper brings together multiple lines of evidence to propose that these two ecotypes are different from one another and every other orca population in the world. Enough to warrent them their own species status (suggested O. ater and O. rectipinnus). Join us to learn about the convincing evidence, the process still to come for the possible confirmation of this new designation, and what that means for conservation.

Paper is open access: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rsos.231368

Information about how they choose the names: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/lost-skulls-and-latin-how-scientists-chose-names-newly-identified-killer-whale-species

Information with info graphics: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/new-research-reveals-full-diversity-killer-whales-two-species-come-view-pacific-coast

www.pacmam.org

This week: Heavisides (or Havisides) Dolphin

Presenters: Cindy Elliser, Katrina MacIver

Music by Josh Burns

Sources:

https://www.marinebio.org/species/heavisides-dolphins/cephalorhynchus-heavisidii/

https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/heavisides-dolphin/

Marine Mammals of the World, Jefferson, Webber, Pitman, Gorter: https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780124095427/marine-mammals-of-the-world

https://animalia.bio/heavisides-dolphin

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4161/50352086#population

New Research:

Martin et al 2018– acoustic relaxing acoustic crypsis for increased communication

•https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.1178

Martin et al 2019 – to buzz or burst pulse, functional role of vocalizations •https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347219300089

Gopal et al 2019 – Genetics and geographic variation mtDNA

•https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1749-4877.12380

Martin et al 2020 – First abundance estimates •https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.555659/full

Gridley et al. 2020 Towed passive acoustic monitoring complements visual surveys

•https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/1814232X.2020.1848925