Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-2jptb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T10:57:48.002Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stomach Contents of a Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon Ampullatus) Stranded at Hiddensee, Baltic Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Roland Lick  and
Uwe Piatkowski
Roland Lick
Affiliation:
Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Westküste, Universität Kiel, Werftstrasse 6, D-25761 Büsum, Germany.
Uwe Piatkowski
Affiliation:
Institut für Meereskunde an der Universität Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The stomach of a female northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus (Odontoceti: Ziphiidae) stranded at Hiddensee Island, western Baltic Sea, on 23 August 1993 contained 7465 cephalopod beaks (4934 upper and 2531 lower). The lower beaks were identified, their rostral lengths were measured and used to estimate size and mass of the cephalopods consumed by the whale. All lower beaks belonged to one species, the boreoatlantic gonate squid Gonatus fabricii (Cephalopoda: Teuthoidea) indicating a mean squid mantle length of 21·9 cm and a mean squid wet mass of 220·7 g. The total squid biomass in the whale's stomach represented by the lower beaks was 598·6 kg. Assuming that all upper beaks belong to G. fabricii, the squid biomass taken by the whale was estimated to be 1089 kg. Besides the beaks partly digested squid gladii, spermatophores and 15 specimens of the fish parasite Sphyrion lumpi (Crustacea: Copepoda) occurred in the stomach. No fish remains were found.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 643 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benjaminsen, T., 1972. On the biology of the bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus, (Forster). Norwegian Journal of Zoology, 20, 233–241.Google Scholar
Benjaminsen, T. & Christensen, I., 1979. The natural history of the bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus (Forster). In Behaviour of marine animals (ed. H.E., Winn and B.L., Oua), pp. 143–164. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjorke, H., 1995. Norwegian investigations on Gonatus fabricii (Lichtenstein). International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, (CM Papers and Reports), CM 1995/K:12, 13 pp.Google Scholar
Christensen, I., 1995. Hyperoodon ampullatus (Forster, 1770). In Handbuch der Säugetiere Europas, Band 6/1 B. Meeressäuger. Teil IB. Wale und Delphine 2 (ed. R., Robineau et al.), pp. 508–525. Wiesbaden: AULA-Verlag.Google Scholar
Clarke, M.R., 1966. A review of the systematics and ecology of oceanic squids. Advances in Marine Biology, 4, 91–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, M.R., 1980. Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale biology. Discovery Reports, 37, 1–324.Google Scholar
Clarke, M.R., 1986a. A handbook for the identification of cephalopod beaks. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, M.R., 1986b. Cephalopods in the diet of odontocetes. In Research on dolphins (ed. M.M., Bryden and R., Harrison), pp. 281–321. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, M.R. & Kristensen, T.K., 1980. Cephalopod beaks from the stomachs of two northern bottlenosed whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 66, 779–790.Google Scholar
Hjort, J., 1902. Fiskeri og hvalfangst i det nordlige Norge. Bergen: John Griegs Forlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hjort, J. & Ruud, J.T., 1929. Whaling and fishing in the North Atlantic. Rapport et Procès-verbaux des Réunions. Commission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la Mer Méditerranée, 56, 1–123.Google Scholar
Innes, S., Lavigne, D.M., Earle, W.M. & Kovacs, K.M., 1987. Feeding rates of seals and whales. Journal of Animal Ecology, 56, 115–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristensen, T.K., 1981a. First record of a mature female of the squid Gonatus fabricii (Lichtenstein, 1818) (Cephalopoda: Teuthoidea). Steenstrupia, 7, 101–108.Google Scholar
Kristensen, T.K., 1981b. The genus Gonatus Gray, 1849 (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) in the North Atlantic. A revision of the North Atlantic species and description of Gonatus steenstrupi n. sp. Steenstrupia, 7, 61–99.Google Scholar
Kristensen, T.K., 1983. Gonatus fabricii. In Cephalopod life cycles. Vol. 1. Species accounts (ed. P.R., Boyle), pp. 159–173. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kristensen, T.K., 1984. Biology of the squid Gonatus fabricii (Lichtenstein, 1818) from west Greenland waters. Meddelelser om Grenland, Bioscience, 13, 1–17.Google Scholar
Mead, J.G., 1989. Bottlenose whales Hyperoodon ampullatus (Forster, 1770) and Hyperoodon planifrons Flower, 1882. In Handbook of marine mammals. Vol. 4. River dolphins and the large toothed whales (ed. H., Ridgway and R., Harrison), pp. 321–348. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Nesis, K.N., 1965. Distribution and feeding of young squids Gonatus fabricii (Licht.) in the Labrador Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Oceanology, 5, 102–108.Google Scholar
Nesis, K.N., 1987. Cephalopods of the World. Neptune City: T.F.H. Publications.Google Scholar
Nigrelli, R.F. & Firth, F.E., 1939. On Sphyrion lumpi (Krøyer), a copepod parasite on the redfish, Sebastes marinus (Linnaeus), with special reference to the host-parasite relationships. Zoologica, 24, 1–10.Google Scholar
Piatkowski, U. & Wieland, K., 1993. The Boreoatlantic gonate squid Gonatus fabricii: distribution and size off west Greenland in summer 1989 and in summer and autumn 1990. Aquatic Living Resources, 6, 109–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, W., 1970. Über das Vorkommen von Walen in der Nord- und Ostsee (Ordn. Cetacea). Zoologischer Anzeiger, 185, 172–264.Google Scholar
Schulze, G., 1991. Wale an der Küste von Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Meer und Museum, 7, 22–52.Google Scholar
Schulze, G., 1995. Entenwale strandeten an der Insel Hiddensee. Meer und Museum, 11, 3–12.Google Scholar
Sergeant, D.E., 1969. Feeding rates of Cetacea. Fiskeridirektoratets Skrifter Serie Havundersøkelser, 15, 246–258.Google Scholar
Slip, D.J., Moore, G.J. & Green, K., 1995. Stomach contents of a southern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon planifrons, stranded at Heard Island. Marine Mammal Science, 11, 575–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Templeman, W. & Squires, H.J., 1960. Incidence and distribition of infestation by Sphyrion lumpi (Krøyer) on the redfish, Sebastes marinus (L.), of the western North Atlantic. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 17, 9–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiborg, K.F., Gjøsæter, J. & Beck, I.M., 1982. The squid Gonatus fabricii (Lichtenstein) investigations in the Norwegian Sea and western Barents Sea 1978–1981. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, (CM Papers and Reports), CM 1982/K:31, 18 pp.Google Scholar