Cranial shape correlates with diet specialization in northeast Pacific killer whale (Orcinus orca) ecotypes. ...

• Main Author: Fung, Charissa W.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2016
• Subjects: Killer Whale; Orca; Orcinus orca; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0314137; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0314137

Resident, transient (Bigg’s), and offshore killer whales (Orcinus orca) live in sympatric and parapatric ranges in the northeast Pacific Ocean. These ecotypes have different vocal repertoires (Ford and Fisher, 1982; Ford, 1991; Yurk, 2002), echolocation use (Barrett-Lennard et al., 1996), foraging strategies (Bigg et al., 1987; Ford et al., 1998; Baird et al., 1992; Deecke et al., 2002; Ford et al., 2011), and sociobiology (Ford and Fisher, 1982; Bigg et al., 1987; Deecke et al., 2000; Baird and Whitehead, 2000; Riesch et al., 2012). Genetic studies corroborate the behavioural evidence that the resident and transient (Bigg’s) populations are reproductively isolated despite the absence of any geographic or temporal barrier (Stevens et al., 1989; Barrett-Lennard, 2000; Hoelzel and Dover, 1991; Morin et al., 2010). The behavioural segregation between the sympatric ecotypes is apparently maintained by cultural mechanisms alone, which is extremely unusual among non-human mammalian species (Barrett-Lennard, 2000; ...