Morphological differences between coastal bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) populations identified using non-invasive stereo-laser photogrammetry.

ABSTRACT: Obtaining morphometric data on free-ranging marine megafauna is difficult, as traditional methods rely on post-mortem or live-capture techniques. We linked stereo-laser photogrammetry with long-term demographic data to compare length-at-age (LaA) growth curves of two well-studied populations of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in south-western (SW) and Shark Bay (SB), mid-western Australia. First, we determined the relationship between total length (TL) and blowhole-to-dorsal fin (BH-DF) length from post-mortem subjects (R² = 0.99, n = 12). We then predicted TL from laser-derived BH-DF measurements of 129 and 74 known-age individuals in SW and SB, respectively. Richards growth models best described our LaA data. While birth length (103-110 cm) was similar betw

SUBMITTER: van Aswegen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6706378 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature