Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales
Abstract The cost of reproduction greatly affects a species’ life history strategy. Baleen whales exhibit some of the fastest offspring growth rates in the animal kingdom. We quantified the energetic cost of gestation for southern right whales ( Eubalaena australis ) by combining whaling catch recor...
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crwiley:10.1113/jp282351 2024-04-28T08:14:08+00:00 Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales Christiansen, Fredrik Uhart, Marcela M Bejder, Lars Clapham, Phil Ivashchenko, Yulia Tormosov, Dmitry Lewin, Nicolás Sironi, Mariano Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/jp282351 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/JP282351 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1113/JP282351 https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/JP282351 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The Journal of Physiology volume 600, issue 9, page 2245-2266 ISSN 0022-3751 1469-7793 Physiology journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1113/jp282351 2024-04-08T06:53:36Z Abstract The cost of reproduction greatly affects a species’ life history strategy. Baleen whales exhibit some of the fastest offspring growth rates in the animal kingdom. We quantified the energetic cost of gestation for southern right whales ( Eubalaena australis ) by combining whaling catch records of pregnant females with photogrammetry data on southern right whale mothers and calves from two breeding grounds in Argentina and Australia. The relationship between calf birth size and maternal length was determined from repeated measurements of individual females before and after giving birth. Fetal growth was determined from generalized linear models fitted to fetal length data from whaling operations between 1961 and 1967. Fetal length was converted to volume and mass, using the volume‐to‐length relationship of newborn southern right whales calves, and published tissue composition and energy content estimates. Fetal maintenance costs (heat of gestation) and the energy content of the placenta were predicted from published relationships and added to the fetal growth cost to calculate the total cost of gestation. Our findings showed that fetal growth rates and birth size increased linearly with maternal length, with calves being born at ∼35% maternal length. Fetal length increased curvilinearly through gestation, which resulted in an exponential increase in fetal volume and mass. Consequently, the cost of gestation was very low during the first (0.1% of total cost) and second trimester (4.9%), but increased rapidly during the last trimester (95.0%). The heat of gestation incurred the highest cost for pregnant females (73.8%), followed by fetal growth (21.2%) and the placental energy content (5.0%). Key points Baleen whales exhibit some of the fastest fetal growth rates in the animal kingdom. Despite this, the energetic cost of gestation is largely unknown, as well as the influence of maternal body size on fetal growth rates and calf birth sizes. We combined historical whaling records and drone photogrammetry data ... Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales Southern Right Whale Wiley Online Library The Journal of Physiology 600 9 2245 2266 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Physiology |
spellingShingle |
Physiology Christiansen, Fredrik Uhart, Marcela M Bejder, Lars Clapham, Phil Ivashchenko, Yulia Tormosov, Dmitry Lewin, Nicolás Sironi, Mariano Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
topic_facet |
Physiology |
description |
Abstract The cost of reproduction greatly affects a species’ life history strategy. Baleen whales exhibit some of the fastest offspring growth rates in the animal kingdom. We quantified the energetic cost of gestation for southern right whales ( Eubalaena australis ) by combining whaling catch records of pregnant females with photogrammetry data on southern right whale mothers and calves from two breeding grounds in Argentina and Australia. The relationship between calf birth size and maternal length was determined from repeated measurements of individual females before and after giving birth. Fetal growth was determined from generalized linear models fitted to fetal length data from whaling operations between 1961 and 1967. Fetal length was converted to volume and mass, using the volume‐to‐length relationship of newborn southern right whales calves, and published tissue composition and energy content estimates. Fetal maintenance costs (heat of gestation) and the energy content of the placenta were predicted from published relationships and added to the fetal growth cost to calculate the total cost of gestation. Our findings showed that fetal growth rates and birth size increased linearly with maternal length, with calves being born at ∼35% maternal length. Fetal length increased curvilinearly through gestation, which resulted in an exponential increase in fetal volume and mass. Consequently, the cost of gestation was very low during the first (0.1% of total cost) and second trimester (4.9%), but increased rapidly during the last trimester (95.0%). The heat of gestation incurred the highest cost for pregnant females (73.8%), followed by fetal growth (21.2%) and the placental energy content (5.0%). Key points Baleen whales exhibit some of the fastest fetal growth rates in the animal kingdom. Despite this, the energetic cost of gestation is largely unknown, as well as the influence of maternal body size on fetal growth rates and calf birth sizes. We combined historical whaling records and drone photogrammetry data ... |
author2 |
Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Christiansen, Fredrik Uhart, Marcela M Bejder, Lars Clapham, Phil Ivashchenko, Yulia Tormosov, Dmitry Lewin, Nicolás Sironi, Mariano |
author_facet |
Christiansen, Fredrik Uhart, Marcela M Bejder, Lars Clapham, Phil Ivashchenko, Yulia Tormosov, Dmitry Lewin, Nicolás Sironi, Mariano |
author_sort |
Christiansen, Fredrik |
title |
Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
title_short |
Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
title_full |
Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
title_fullStr |
Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
title_sort |
fetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/jp282351 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/JP282351 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1113/JP282351 https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/JP282351 |
genre |
baleen whales Southern Right Whale |
genre_facet |
baleen whales Southern Right Whale |
op_source |
The Journal of Physiology volume 600, issue 9, page 2245-2266 ISSN 0022-3751 1469-7793 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1113/jp282351 |
container_title |
The Journal of Physiology |
container_volume |
600 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
2245 |
op_container_end_page |
2266 |
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1797580336201203712 |