Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis
Knowledge of baleen whales' reproductive physiology is limited and requires long-term individual-based studies and innovative tools. We used 6 years of individual-level data on the Pacific Coast Feeding Group gray whales to evaluate the utility of faecal progesterone immunoassays and drone-base...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230452 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230452 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230452 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.230452 2024-09-30T14:32:46+00:00 Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis Fernandez Ajó, A. Pirotta, E. Bierlich, K. C. Hildebrand, L. Bird, C. N. Hunt, K. E. Buck, C. L. New, L. Dillon, D. Torres, L. G. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Oregon Sea Grant, Oregon State University Oregon State University Office of Naval Research 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230452 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230452 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230452 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 10, issue 7 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2023 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230452 2024-09-17T04:34:50Z Knowledge of baleen whales' reproductive physiology is limited and requires long-term individual-based studies and innovative tools. We used 6 years of individual-level data on the Pacific Coast Feeding Group gray whales to evaluate the utility of faecal progesterone immunoassays and drone-based photogrammetry for pregnancy diagnosis. We explored the variability in faecal progesterone metabolites and body morphology relative to observed reproductive status and estimated the pregnancy probability for mature females of unknown reproductive status using normal mixture models. Individual females had higher faecal progesterone concentrations when pregnant than when presumed non-pregnant. Yet, at the population level, high overlap and variability in progesterone metabolite concentrations occurred between pregnant and non-pregnant groups, limiting this metric for accurate pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales. Alternatively, body width at 50% of the total body length (W50) correctly discriminated pregnant from non-pregnant females at individual and population levels, with high accuracy. Application of the model using W50 metric to mature females of unknown pregnancy status identified eight additional pregnancies with high confidence. Our findings highlight the utility of drone-based photogrammetry to non-invasively diagnose pregnancy in this group of gray whales, and the potential for improved data on reproductive rates for population management of baleen whales generally. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales The Royal Society Pacific Royal Society Open Science 10 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
op_collection_id |
crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Knowledge of baleen whales' reproductive physiology is limited and requires long-term individual-based studies and innovative tools. We used 6 years of individual-level data on the Pacific Coast Feeding Group gray whales to evaluate the utility of faecal progesterone immunoassays and drone-based photogrammetry for pregnancy diagnosis. We explored the variability in faecal progesterone metabolites and body morphology relative to observed reproductive status and estimated the pregnancy probability for mature females of unknown reproductive status using normal mixture models. Individual females had higher faecal progesterone concentrations when pregnant than when presumed non-pregnant. Yet, at the population level, high overlap and variability in progesterone metabolite concentrations occurred between pregnant and non-pregnant groups, limiting this metric for accurate pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales. Alternatively, body width at 50% of the total body length (W50) correctly discriminated pregnant from non-pregnant females at individual and population levels, with high accuracy. Application of the model using W50 metric to mature females of unknown pregnancy status identified eight additional pregnancies with high confidence. Our findings highlight the utility of drone-based photogrammetry to non-invasively diagnose pregnancy in this group of gray whales, and the potential for improved data on reproductive rates for population management of baleen whales generally. |
author2 |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Oregon Sea Grant, Oregon State University Oregon State University Office of Naval Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fernandez Ajó, A. Pirotta, E. Bierlich, K. C. Hildebrand, L. Bird, C. N. Hunt, K. E. Buck, C. L. New, L. Dillon, D. Torres, L. G. |
spellingShingle |
Fernandez Ajó, A. Pirotta, E. Bierlich, K. C. Hildebrand, L. Bird, C. N. Hunt, K. E. Buck, C. L. New, L. Dillon, D. Torres, L. G. Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
author_facet |
Fernandez Ajó, A. Pirotta, E. Bierlich, K. C. Hildebrand, L. Bird, C. N. Hunt, K. E. Buck, C. L. New, L. Dillon, D. Torres, L. G. |
author_sort |
Fernandez Ajó, A. |
title |
Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
title_short |
Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
title_full |
Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
title_fullStr |
Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
title_sort |
assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230452 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230452 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230452 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 10, issue 7 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230452 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
7 |
_version_ |
1811636831680200704 |