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Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters

Reproductive biology was assessed in 106 female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) examined post-mortem from stranding and bycatch events along the New Zealand coastline between 1997 and 2019. The average age (ASM) and length (LSM) at sexual maturity was estimated at 7.5 years and 183.5 cm, respect...

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Autores principales: Palmer, Emily I., Betty, Emma L., Murphy, Sinéad, Perrott, Matthew R., Smith, Adam N. H., Stockin, Karen A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9705467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36466079
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04139-3
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author Palmer, Emily I.
Betty, Emma L.
Murphy, Sinéad
Perrott, Matthew R.
Smith, Adam N. H.
Stockin, Karen A.
author_facet Palmer, Emily I.
Betty, Emma L.
Murphy, Sinéad
Perrott, Matthew R.
Smith, Adam N. H.
Stockin, Karen A.
author_sort Palmer, Emily I.
collection PubMed
description Reproductive biology was assessed in 106 female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) examined post-mortem from stranding and bycatch events along the New Zealand coastline between 1997 and 2019. The average age (ASM) and length (LSM) at sexual maturity was estimated at 7.5 years and 183.5 cm, respectively. The total number of corpora in mature individuals increased with age and appeared to persist throughout life. Ovarian asymmetry was apparent, with the left ovary displaying higher rates of ovulation, and a maximum of 19 corpora recorded for a 24-year-old female. The estimated ovulation and annual pregnancy rates for mature females were 0.39 year(−1) and 30%, respectively. Conception and calving occurred year-round, with a weak seasonal increase observed in late austral spring and early austral summer. As these data did not clearly show whether seasonality was present, the gestation, lactation, and resting periods were calculated as either 12.6 or 12.8 months based on the presence/absence of seasonality, respectively. Similarly, calving interval ranged from 3.15 to 3.2 years, depending upon whether seasonality was considered. The estimated LSM of the New Zealand population aligns with other populations globally, although the estimated ASM is younger by approximately 6 months. Other reproductive parameters align with Northern Hemisphere populations, although demonstrate variation, which may reflect adaptations to local conditions such as water temperature and prey availability. As the species is subject to anthropogenic impacts including pollution and bycatch, we suggest our findings be used as a baseline with which to monitor trends in population parameters. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00227-022-04139-3.
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spelling pubmed-97054672022-11-30 Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters Palmer, Emily I. Betty, Emma L. Murphy, Sinéad Perrott, Matthew R. Smith, Adam N. H. Stockin, Karen A. Mar Biol Original Paper Reproductive biology was assessed in 106 female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) examined post-mortem from stranding and bycatch events along the New Zealand coastline between 1997 and 2019. The average age (ASM) and length (LSM) at sexual maturity was estimated at 7.5 years and 183.5 cm, respectively. The total number of corpora in mature individuals increased with age and appeared to persist throughout life. Ovarian asymmetry was apparent, with the left ovary displaying higher rates of ovulation, and a maximum of 19 corpora recorded for a 24-year-old female. The estimated ovulation and annual pregnancy rates for mature females were 0.39 year(−1) and 30%, respectively. Conception and calving occurred year-round, with a weak seasonal increase observed in late austral spring and early austral summer. As these data did not clearly show whether seasonality was present, the gestation, lactation, and resting periods were calculated as either 12.6 or 12.8 months based on the presence/absence of seasonality, respectively. Similarly, calving interval ranged from 3.15 to 3.2 years, depending upon whether seasonality was considered. The estimated LSM of the New Zealand population aligns with other populations globally, although the estimated ASM is younger by approximately 6 months. Other reproductive parameters align with Northern Hemisphere populations, although demonstrate variation, which may reflect adaptations to local conditions such as water temperature and prey availability. As the species is subject to anthropogenic impacts including pollution and bycatch, we suggest our findings be used as a baseline with which to monitor trends in population parameters. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00227-022-04139-3. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2022-11-28 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9705467/ /pubmed/36466079 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04139-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Paper
Palmer, Emily I.
Betty, Emma L.
Murphy, Sinéad
Perrott, Matthew R.
Smith, Adam N. H.
Stockin, Karen A.
Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters
title Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters
title_full Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters
title_fullStr Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters
title_full_unstemmed Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters
title_short Reproductive biology of female common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in New Zealand waters
title_sort reproductive biology of female common dolphins (delphinus delphis) in new zealand waters
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9705467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36466079
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04139-3
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