10.5061/DRYAD.QT352SG
de Vos, Asha
The Sri Lankan Blue Whale Project and Oceanswell, Sri Lanka
Faux, Cassandra E.
University of Tasmania
Marthick, James
University of Tasmania
Dickinson, Joanne
University of Tasmania
Jarman, Simon
Curtin University
Jarman, Simon N.
Curtin University
Data from: New determination of prey and parasite species for Northern
Indian Ocean blue whales
Dryad
dataset
2019
Anthropocene
Shrimp
Sri Lanka
Euphausiidae
Balaenoptera musculus)
Sergestid
Faeces
Blue whales
feeding
Northern Indian Ocean
krill
2019-03-15T00:00:00Z
2019-03-15T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00104
6301088 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Blue whales are little studied, face significant anthropogenic threats and
within the Northern Indian Ocean, have a restricted range, making them an
archetype for conservation needs of megafauna around the world. We studied
feeding behaviour of blue whales using dietary DNA metabarcoding of faecal
samples. While globally blue whale populations feed predominantly on
Euphausiidae, 87 % of prey DNA amplicons extracted from faecal samples
from this population were sergestid shrimp, demonstrating that blue whales
can locate and feed on dense swarms of other types of prey when they
occur. Within the Indian Ocean sergestids are present within the top 300
m, which correlates with the deep scattering layer observed by
hydroacoustics. Studies suggest that this requirement to dive deeper in
search of prey likely explains the prevalence of fluke up diving within
this population of blue whales relative to other parts of the globe.
Furthermore, this study revealed the presence of acanthocephalan
endoparasites within the stomach and intestines of the Northern Indian
Ocean blue whales. This represents the first record of Acanthocephala in
blue whales in the Northern Indian Ocean and highlights the need for
further studies on both the ecto- and endoparasitic flora and monitoring
of health of these cetaceans for their management and conservation.
DNA sequences amplified from blue whale scatsFastq files of DNA sequences
amplified from blue whale scats.BlueWhaleDietSequencingRawData.zip
Sri Lanka