Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations
Fisheries can generate feeding opportunities for large marine predators in the form of discards or accessible catch. How the use of this anthropogenic food may spread as a new behaviour, across individuals within populations over time, is poorly understood. This study used a 16-year (2003–2018) moni...
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2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 2024-06-02T08:09:51+00:00 Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations Amelot, Morgane Plard, Floriane Guinet, Christophe Arnould, John P. Y. Gasco, Nicolas Tixier, Paul Australian Research Council Agence Nationale de la Recherche 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Biology Letters volume 18, issue 2 ISSN 1744-957X journal-article 2022 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 2024-05-07T14:16:34Z Fisheries can generate feeding opportunities for large marine predators in the form of discards or accessible catch. How the use of this anthropogenic food may spread as a new behaviour, across individuals within populations over time, is poorly understood. This study used a 16-year (2003–2018) monitoring of two killer whale Orcinus orca subantarctic populations ( regular and Type-D at Crozet), and Bayesian multistate capture–mark–recapture models, to assess temporal changes in the number of individuals feeding on fish caught on hooks (‘depredation’ behaviour) of a fishery started in 1996. For both populations, the number of depredating individuals increased during the study period (34 to 94 for regular 17 to 43 for Type-D ). Increasing abundance is unlikely to account for this and, rather, the results suggest depredation was acquired by increasing numbers of existing individuals. For regular killer whales, a plateau reached from 2014 suggests that it took 18 years for the behaviour to spread across the whole population. A more recent plateau was apparent for Type-D s but additional years are needed to confirm this. These findings show how changes in prey availability caused by human activities lead to rapid, yet progressive, innovations in killer whales, likely altering the ecological role of this top-predator. Article in Journal/Newspaper Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale The Royal Society Biology Letters 18 2 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Fisheries can generate feeding opportunities for large marine predators in the form of discards or accessible catch. How the use of this anthropogenic food may spread as a new behaviour, across individuals within populations over time, is poorly understood. This study used a 16-year (2003–2018) monitoring of two killer whale Orcinus orca subantarctic populations ( regular and Type-D at Crozet), and Bayesian multistate capture–mark–recapture models, to assess temporal changes in the number of individuals feeding on fish caught on hooks (‘depredation’ behaviour) of a fishery started in 1996. For both populations, the number of depredating individuals increased during the study period (34 to 94 for regular 17 to 43 for Type-D ). Increasing abundance is unlikely to account for this and, rather, the results suggest depredation was acquired by increasing numbers of existing individuals. For regular killer whales, a plateau reached from 2014 suggests that it took 18 years for the behaviour to spread across the whole population. A more recent plateau was apparent for Type-D s but additional years are needed to confirm this. These findings show how changes in prey availability caused by human activities lead to rapid, yet progressive, innovations in killer whales, likely altering the ecological role of this top-predator. |
author2 |
Australian Research Council Agence Nationale de la Recherche |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Amelot, Morgane Plard, Floriane Guinet, Christophe Arnould, John P. Y. Gasco, Nicolas Tixier, Paul |
spellingShingle |
Amelot, Morgane Plard, Floriane Guinet, Christophe Arnould, John P. Y. Gasco, Nicolas Tixier, Paul Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
author_facet |
Amelot, Morgane Plard, Floriane Guinet, Christophe Arnould, John P. Y. Gasco, Nicolas Tixier, Paul |
author_sort |
Amelot, Morgane |
title |
Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
title_short |
Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
title_full |
Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
title_fullStr |
Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
title_sort |
increasing numbers of killer whale individuals use fisheries as feeding opportunities within subantarctic populations |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 |
genre |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
op_source |
Biology Letters volume 18, issue 2 ISSN 1744-957X |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0328 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1800755633405820928 |