Towards population-level conservation in the critically endangered Antarctic blue whale: the number and distribution of their populations

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Attard, Catherine, Beheregaray, Luciano Bellagamba, Moller, Luciana Marta
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Balaenoptera musculus; Blue whale
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2328/36152; https://doi.org/10.1038/srep22291

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Population-level conservation is required to prevent biodiversity loss within a species, but it first necessitates determining the number and distribution of populations. Many whale populations are still depleted due to 20th century whaling. Whales are one of the most logistically difficult and expensive animals to study because of their mobility, pelagic lifestyle and often remote habitat. We tackle the question of population structure in the Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) – a critically endangered subspecies and the largest extant animal – by capitalizing on the largest genetic dataset to date for Antarctic blue whales. We found evidence of three populations that are sympatric in the Antarctic feeding grounds and likely occupy separate breeding grounds. Our study adds to knowledge of population structure in the Antarctic blue whale. Future research should invest in locating the breeding grounds and migratory routes of Antarctic blue whales through satellite telemetry to confirm their population structure and allow population-level conservation.