Retrospective analysis of the lifetime endocrine response of southern right whale calves to gull wounding and harassment: A baleen hormone approach.

Autor: Fernández Ajó AA; Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, 617 S. Beaver St., PO Box 5640, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA; Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas, Capital Federal, O'Higgins 4380, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina. Electronic address: aaf269@nau.edu., Hunt KE; George Mason University, Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation 1500 Remount Rd, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA., Giese AC; Instituto Patagónico Para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales. IPEEC-CONICET, Bvd. Brown 2915 (9120), Puerto Madryn, Argentina., Sironi M; Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas, Capital Federal, O'Higgins 4380, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina; Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, Los Alerces 3376, Puerto Madryn, Chubut 9120, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales (FCEFyN), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Vélez Sársfield 299, Córdoba 5000, Argentina., Uhart M; Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, Los Alerces 3376, Puerto Madryn, Chubut 9120, Argentina; Wildlife Health Center, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, 1089 Veterinary Medicine Drive, VM3B Ground Floor, Davis, CA 95616, USA., Rowntree VJ; Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas, Capital Federal, O'Higgins 4380, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina; Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, Los Alerces 3376, Puerto Madryn, Chubut 9120, Argentina; Department of Biology, University of Utah, 257 South 1400 East University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; Ocean Alliance/Whale Conservation Institute, 32 Horton St, Gloucester, MA 01930, USA., Marón CF; Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas, Capital Federal, O'Higgins 4380, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales (FCEFyN), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Vélez Sársfield 299, Córdoba 5000, Argentina., Dillon D; Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, 617 S. Beaver St., PO Box 5640, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA., DiMartino M; Southern Right Whale Health Monitoring Program, Los Alerces 3376, Puerto Madryn, Chubut 9120, Argentina., Buck CL; Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, 617 S. Beaver St., PO Box 5640, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: General and comparative endocrinology [Gen Comp Endocrinol] 2020 Sep 15; Vol. 296, pp. 113536. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jun 12.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2020.113536
Abstrakt: Physiological measurements are informative in assessing the relative importance of stressors that potentially impact the health of wildlife. Kelp Gulls, Larus dominicanus (KG), resident to the region of Península Valdés, Argentina, have developed a unique behavior of landing on the backs of southern right whale adults and calves, Eubalaena australis (SRW), where they feed on their skin and blubber. This parasitic behavior results in large open wounds on the dorsal surface of the whale. Coincidently, the SRW population off the coast of Península Valdés has experienced elevated calf mortality. We quantified levels of glucocorticoids and thyroid hormone extracted from baleen of dead calves to evaluate, retrospectively, the endocrine response of whale calves to gull wounding and harassment. Baleen accumulates hormones as it grows, allowing evaluation of long-term trends in physiological condition. While glucocorticoids (GCs) are known to increase in response to stressors such as disturbance, the metabolic hormone triiodothyronine (T 3 ) has been shown to decrease under sustained food deprivation but is largely unaffected by disturbance stress. We quantified lifetime patterns of GCs and T 3 in baleen recovered at necropsy from 36 southern right whale calves with varying severity of wounding from KGs. GC levels in baleen correlated positively with the degree of wounding, while T 3 levels remained stable irrespective of the severity of the wounding. Our results suggest no evidence of malnutrition in low vs. severely wounded whales. However, the positive correlation of GCs with wound severity indicates that heavily wounded calves are suffering high levels of physiological stress before they die. This suggests that KG wounding may have contributed to the high southern right whale calf mortality observed in the Península Valdés region of Argentina.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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