Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:29:43.574Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Records of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops spp., in New Caledonian waters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Philippe Borsa ,
Serge Andréfouët  and
Matthieu Juncker
Philippe Borsa*
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UR 227 ‘Biocomplexité des Ecosystèmes Récifaux’, Centre IRD de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Serge Andréfouët
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UR 227 ‘Biocomplexité des Ecosystèmes Récifaux’, Centre IRD de Nouméa, Nouméa, New Caledonia
Matthieu Juncker
Affiliation:
Observatoire de l'Environnement en Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, New Caledonia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: P. Borsa, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UR 227 ‘Biocomplexité des Ecosystèmes Récifaux’, Centre IRD de Montpellier-PS2, 911 avenue Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier cxFrance email: philippe.borsa@ird.fr
Get access

Abstract

Observations of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops spp. were made opportunistically between 1993 and 2009 in New Caledonian waters (eastern Coral Sea, south-western Pacific). Two morphotypes, defined from pigmentation patterns, were observed: morphotype-B individuals possessed a distinctive, extensive pale-grey blaze that indents the darker-grey dorsal cape towards the basis of the dorsal fin while morphotype-A individuals lacked it. Morphotype-A bottlenose dolphins occurred in pods of 2–10 individuals whereas pods of morphotype-B bottlenose dolphins comprised up to ~30 individuals. All morphotype-A bottlenose dolphin sightings were made in inshore waters, and all morphotype-B bottlenose dolphin sightings were made offshore. Wounds inflicted by large sharks, including the tiger shark, were documented for morphotype-A bottlenose dolphins. Leisure-boat traffic is likely to be the cause of additional injuries to bottlenose dolphins in the New Caledonian lagoon. Pigmentation patterns and correlated habitat preferences of morphotype-A and -B bottlenose dolphins were consistent with those of, respectively, T. aduncus and T. truncatus in the western Coral Sea and elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Keywords

Coral SeaNew CaledoniaIndo-Pacificpigmentation patternshabitat segregationTursiops aduncusTursiops truncatus
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 5 , August 2012 , e53
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Borsa, P. (2006) Marine mammal strandings in the New Caledonia region, southwest Pacific. Comptes Rendus Biologies 329, 277–288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borsa, P. (2008) Mission ornithologique à l'îlot Loop (îles Chesterfield) et transects en mer de Corail et dans le bassin des Loyauté, 20–28 octobre 2008. Nouméa: IRD, 13 pp. (available from http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/).Google Scholar
Ehrenberg, C.G. (1833) Mammalia, decade II. In Hemprich, F.W. and Ehrenberg, C.G. (eds) Symbolae physicae, seu icons et descriptions corporum naturalium novorum aut minus cogitorum, quae ex itineribus per Libyam, Aegyptum, Nubiam, Dongalam, Syriam, Arabiam et Habessiniam public institutis sumptu Friderici Guilelmi Hemprich et Cristiani Godofredi Ehrenberg studio annis MDCCCXX–MDCCCXXV redierunt. Pars Zoologica. Officina academica, Berolini.Google Scholar
Gao, A., Zhou, K. and Wang, Y. (1995) Geographical variation in morphology of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Chinese waters. Aquatic Mammals 21, 121–135.Google Scholar
Guillemot, N., Léopold, M., Cuif, M. and Chabanet, P. (2009) Characterization and management of informal fisheries confronted with socio-economic changes in New Caledonia (South Pacific). Fisheries Research 98, 51–61.Google Scholar
Hale, P.T., Barreto, A.S. and Ross, G.J.B. (2000) Comparative morphology and distribution of the aduncus and truncatus forms of bottlenose dolphin Tursiops in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. Aquatic Mammals 26, 101–110.Google Scholar
Hoelzel, A.R., Potter, C.W. and Best, P.B. (1998) Genetic differentiation between parapatric ‘nearshore’ and ‘offshore’ populations of the bottlenose dolphin. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B 265, 1177–1183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Möller, L.M. and Beheregaray, L.B. (2001) Coastal bottlenose dolphins from southeastern Australia are Tursiops aduncus according to sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region. Marine Mammal Science 17, 249–263.Google Scholar
Montagu, G. (1821) Description of a species of Delphinus that appears to be new. Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society 3, 75–82.Google Scholar
Perrin, W.F., Robertson, K.M., Bree, P.J.H. van and Mead, J.G. (2007) Cranial description and genetic identity of the holotype specimen of Tursiops aduncus (Ehrenberg, 1832). Marine Mammal Science 23, 343–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, R.R. and Brownell, R.L. Jr (eds) (2009) Report of the assessment workshop on Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) with the Solomon Islands as a case study. Cetacean Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN. Gland: IUCN, 65 pp.Google Scholar
Reeves, R.R., Leatherwood, S., Stone, G.S. and Eldredge, L.G. (1999) Marine mammals in the area served by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Apia: SPREP, viii + 48 pp.Google Scholar
Rice, D.W. (1998) Marine mammals of the world, systematics and distribution. Society for Marine Mammalogy Special Publication no. 4. Lawrence: Allen Press, 231 pp.Google Scholar
Richer, de Forges, B. and Pascal, M. (2008) La Nouvelle-Calédonie, un « point chaud » de la biodiversité mondiale gravement menacé par l'exploitation minière. Journal de la Société des Océanistes 126/127, 95–111.Google Scholar
Ross, G.J.B. (1977) The taxonomy of the bottlenose dolphins Tursiops species in South African waters, with notes on their biology. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museums (Natural History) 11, 135–194.Google Scholar
Ross, G.J.B. and Cockcroft, V.G. (1990) Comments on Australian bottlenose dolphins and taxonomic status of Tursiops aduncus (Ehrenberg, 1832). In Leatherwood, S. and Reeves, R.R. (eds) The bottlenose dolphin. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 101–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, W.B.F., Carbotte, S.M., Coplan, J.O., O'Hara, S., Melkonian, A., Arko, R., Weissel, R.A., Ferrini, V., Goodwillie, A., Nitsche, F., Bonczkowski, J. and Zemsky, R. (2009) Global multi-resolution topography synthesis. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 10, Q03014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tezanos-Pinto, G., Baker, C.S., Russell, K., Martien, K., Baird, R.W., Hutt, A., Stone, G., Mignucci-Giannoni, A.A., Caballero, S., Endo, T., Lavery, S., Oremus, M., Olavarria, C. and Garrigue, C. (2009) A worldwide perspective on the population structure and genetic diversity of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in New Zealand. Journal of Heredity 100, 11–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, J.Y., Chou, L.-S. and White, B.N. (2000) Differences in the external morphology of two sympatric species of bottlenose dolphins (genus Tursiops) in the waters of China. Journal of Mammalogy 81, 1157–1165.Google Scholar
Wang, J.Y. and Yang, S.C. (2009) Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin Tursiops aduncus. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 602–608.Google Scholar
Wells, R.S. and Scott, M.D. (2002) Bottlenose dolphins. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 122–128.Google Scholar