The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding
Spitsbergen's bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were hunted to near extinction in the world's first commercial whaling enterprise; this population clearly remains threatened, but nothing is known about its distribution, making assessment unfeasible. In this study, we document range, move...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7336847 2023-05-15T15:04:18+02:00 The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Vacquiè-Garcia, Jade Shpak, Olga Glazov, Dmitry Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter 2020-06 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336847/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32516566 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336847/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32516566 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148 © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Biol Lett Conservation Biology Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148 2020-07-12T00:37:53Z Spitsbergen's bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were hunted to near extinction in the world's first commercial whaling enterprise; this population clearly remains threatened, but nothing is known about its distribution, making assessment unfeasible. In this study, we document range, movement patterns and habitat preferences of this population, based on tagging done from an icebreaker-based helicopter. Despite their reduced abundance, Spitsbergen's bowhead whales occupy much of their historical range, stretching across the northern Barents Region from East Greenland eastward to Franz Josef Land. Unlike larger bowhead populations to the west, they do not migrate in a classical sense, but rather disperse from wintering grounds in the northernmost parts of their range during spring, returning northward again in autumn, a pattern opposite in terms of directionality compared to other Arctic bowhead whale populations. The extreme affiliation of this population with cold, ice-filled waters is a concern given ongoing climate warming and concomitant rapid sea ice habitat loss. Text Arctic Balaena mysticetus barents region bowhead whale East Greenland Franz Josef Land Greenland Sea ice Spitsbergen PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Franz Josef Land ENVELOPE(55.000,55.000,81.000,81.000) Greenland Biology Letters 16 6 20200148 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Conservation Biology |
spellingShingle |
Conservation Biology Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Vacquiè-Garcia, Jade Shpak, Olga Glazov, Dmitry Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
topic_facet |
Conservation Biology |
description |
Spitsbergen's bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were hunted to near extinction in the world's first commercial whaling enterprise; this population clearly remains threatened, but nothing is known about its distribution, making assessment unfeasible. In this study, we document range, movement patterns and habitat preferences of this population, based on tagging done from an icebreaker-based helicopter. Despite their reduced abundance, Spitsbergen's bowhead whales occupy much of their historical range, stretching across the northern Barents Region from East Greenland eastward to Franz Josef Land. Unlike larger bowhead populations to the west, they do not migrate in a classical sense, but rather disperse from wintering grounds in the northernmost parts of their range during spring, returning northward again in autumn, a pattern opposite in terms of directionality compared to other Arctic bowhead whale populations. The extreme affiliation of this population with cold, ice-filled waters is a concern given ongoing climate warming and concomitant rapid sea ice habitat loss. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Vacquiè-Garcia, Jade Shpak, Olga Glazov, Dmitry Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter |
author_facet |
Kovacs, Kit M. Lydersen, Christian Vacquiè-Garcia, Jade Shpak, Olga Glazov, Dmitry Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter |
author_sort |
Kovacs, Kit M. |
title |
The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
title_short |
The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
title_full |
The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
title_fullStr |
The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
title_full_unstemmed |
The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
title_sort |
endangered spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336847/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32516566 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(55.000,55.000,81.000,81.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Franz Josef Land Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Franz Josef Land Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Balaena mysticetus barents region bowhead whale East Greenland Franz Josef Land Greenland Sea ice Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Arctic Balaena mysticetus barents region bowhead whale East Greenland Franz Josef Land Greenland Sea ice Spitsbergen |
op_source |
Biol Lett |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7336847/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32516566 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148 |
op_rights |
© 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
20200148 |
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1766336100822941696 |