I have had positive feedback about sightings on this forum so here is an
installment which may be of interest. I am also intending to organise a 2
day weekend cetacean pelagic in the Otway basin in late March. The date I
hope to get is the 23rd and 24th March. I will post official information as
soon as I have confirmed arrangements with the skipper. It'll be the same
vessel as the birding pelagics and will be setting out at the peak time for
Blue Whale and it is highly likely that this species will be encountered
during the trip. As usual spaces will be very limited.
However, this week has been very interesting so far. I won't bother
repeating yesterday's posting by Alan Morris concerning False Killer Whales
in NSW (see the archive). However, this is just the sort of interest I am
keen to promote and any sightings, however insignificant or historical,
would be of use.
Back to this week. There have been two strandings of Strap-toothed
(Layard's) Beaked Whale Mesoplodon layardii this week in Victoria.
A 5.5m long female was beached alive on 29th January opposite the entrance
to the Great Ocean Road at Airey's Inlet.
The second stranding may have concerned a male (there is some contention as
to whether this animal was a female) which was discovered alive on the 27th
January but authorities were not informed until much later. The carcass was
therefore in an advanced state of decomposition when it was visited by
veterenary scientists and Melbourne museum staff.
There have been over 150 strandings of this species in the southern
hemisphere many of which have occurred in Australia. The species is
considered to be widespread. However, Strap-toothed Beaked Whales along with
at least 20 other similar species worldwide (new species are still being
described) are hardly ever seen as they inhabit deep ocean trenches along
the continental shelf many kilometres from the shore. Most like
Strap-toothed are only about twice the size of an adult Bottlenose Dolphin.
Male Strap-tooths are unique among cetaceans in having a pair of teeth that
grow out of the lower jaw and literally overlap above the upper jaw, all but
strapping it closed (hence the name!). This does not seem to affect feeding
as old individuals of this species have been found stranded after apparently
feeding healthily for years.
A post mortem on the east Gippsland animal indicated possible cancer in the
stomach which was empty and the animal may not have fed for a month or so.
The blubber was very thin (compared to the animal found at Airey's inlet)
and it is considered to be riddled with parasites. Although the Australian
newspaper reported a link between the two strandings, this is unlikely given
that they occurred some hundreds of kilometres apart and at least one of the
animals shows signs of having suffered from disease. A post mortem was not
undertaken on the animal that stranded along the Great Ocean Road so cause
of death is not known.
Regards,
Simon Mustoe.
_____________________________________________
Simon Mustoe - Principal
AES Applied Ecology Solutions Pty Ltd.
59 Joan Avenue
Ferntree Gully
Melbourne
Victoria 3156
AUSTRALIA
Telephone 03 9762 2616
International Telephone +61 (0) 3 9762 2616
Mobile 0405 220830
Email
Website www.onthe.net.au/ecologysolutions
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
