1 research outputs found
Effects of a morbillivirus epizootic on long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas in Spanish Mediterranean waters
Long-finned pilot whales Globicephala
melas are a commonly encountered species in the
Mediterranean Sea. In 2006−2007, an outbreak of the
dolphin morbillivirus in the Western Mediterranean
resulted in increased mortality of this species. The
aim of this study was to determine whether survival
rates differed between clusters of Spanish Medi -
terranean pilot whales, and how the epizootic in -
fluenced these survival rates. Photo-identification
surveys were conducted between 1992 and 2009.
Association indices were used to define clusters of
individuals that associate with each other more frequently
than with others. Based on a Cormack-Jolly-
Seber survival rate model, apparent survival rate
estimates varied from 0.821 to 0.995 over 11 clusters
for the 1992−2009 period. When the effect of the morbillivirus
outbreak was modeled, 3 clusters with distinctly
lower survival rates from previous models presented
lower estimates after the outbreak (survival
rate dropped from 0.919 [95% CI: 0.854−0.956] to
0.547 [95% CI: 0.185−0.866]), suggesting a negative
influence of the epizootic or other unknown additive
factors on certain clusters. This information is critical
for the conservation of long-finned pilot whales,
since they are listed as ‘data deficient’ in the Mediterranean Sea by the IUCN and as ‘vulnerable’ in the Spanish National Catalogue of Endangered SpeciesPeer reviewe