Mairne Ecology Progress Series
(193) 209-216
Habitat preferences of female humpback whales Megaptera
novaeangliae in the Hawaiian Islands are associated with reproductive
status (2000)
- Alison S. Craig & Louis M. Herman
- Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory and The Dolphin Institute
-
The main Hawaiian Islands are the primary winter reproductive
area for the majority of North Pacific humpback whales Megaptera
novaeangliae. Identification photographs of individual whales,
including 63 females sighted in at least 2 different years and
with at least 1 calf, were collected from waters off the islands
of Maui and Hawaii ('Big Island') between 1977 and 1994. Calves
formed a significantly larger proportion of the population off
Maui than off the Big Island. The overall proportion of claves
to all whales identified (crude birth rate) was 0.099 off Maui
and 0.061 off the Big Island. Also, considering only females seen
in more than 1 year, the number of calvesper female per year (calving
rate) was 0.71 off Maui and 0.52 off the Big Island. These rates
may be inflated somewhat because of the greater likelihood of
sighting and identifying females with claf than females without.
Females sighted at both Maui and the Big Island in different years
were with a calf significantly more often in Maui waters than
in Big Island waters. It was concluded that habitat utilisation
by females varies between Maui and the Big Island, and appears
to depend in part upon reproductive status.
(Full text PDF)
-
- Copyright (c) 2000 Intel-Research
Craig, A.S., & Herman, L.M. (2000). Habitat preferences of
female humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in the Hawaiian
Islands are associated with reproductive status. Marine Ecology
Progress Series, 193, 209-216.
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