Publication Abstract

It is known that ecological, biological and physiological factors lead to different contamination patterns in individual marine mammals. In this context, the objective of the present study was to assess whether variations of the contamination profile are indicative of social structures of young male sperm whales as they might reflect a variation in feeding preferences and/or in feeding grounds. We used a total of 61 variables associated with organic compounds and trace element concentrations measured in either muscle, liver, kidney or blubber from 24 necropsied sperm whales that stranded in the North Sea in January and February 2016. Combining contaminant and genetic data, there is evidence for at least two cohorts of different origin among the stranded sperm whales, one from the Canary Islands and one from the northern part of the Atlantic. This study highlights the importance of combining different types of data. While genetic data unravel genetic relationship and kinship, contamination data integrates areas, where animals occur during their lifetime. Especially in long living animals with a large migratory potential, as sperm whales, contamination data may carry highly relevant information about aggregation through time and space.

Joseph G. Schnitzler, Marianna Pinzone, Marijke Autenrieth, Abbo van Neer, Lonneke L. IJsseldijk, Jonathan L. Barber*, Andrew Brownlow, Rob Deaville, Jepson Paul, Tobias Schaffeld, Jean-Pierre Thomé, Ralph Tiedemann, Krishna Das, Ursula Siebert.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29186-z