An environmental index for habitat utilization by female harbour porpoises with calves near Deer Island, Bay of Fundy

Feeding ecology of harbour porpoises: stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen in muscle and bone

“…This has previously been documented for porpoises (Das et al 2004a) and for other marine mammal species (Hobson 1999;Lesage et al 2001). This is confirmed by Smith & Gaskin (1983), who suggest that adult females stay with their young while adult males migrate further offshore, possibly preying on different prey species. Even though previous studies on the diet of porpoises (Aarefjord et al 1995) suggest that a higher consumption need of lactating females may result in feeding at larger and different prey species, stomach contents analysis on porpoises from Dutch coastal waters has shown that female porpoises had ingested more small gobies compared to males that fed more on larger gadoids (Santos & Pierce 2003).…”

Diet composition and food consumption rate of harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the western Baltic Sea

“…Cod and herring constituted on average 70% of the diet mass for adults, while gobies were also important for juveniles. Differences between juveniles and adults have been reported from other areas as well (Smith and Gaskin , Víkingsson et al . , Leopold ).…”

“…Cod and herring constituted on average 70% of the diet mass for adults, while gobies were also important for juveniles. Differences between juveniles and adults have been reported from other areas as well (Smith and Gaskin 1983, V ıkingsson et al 2003, Leopold 2015. The total number of prey species in the diets was the same, but the average number was lower in juveniles pointing to a higher degree of individual specialization.…”

“…The diet is likely to differ between age groups, sexes, as well as between bycaught and stranded animals as seen here and in other studies ( e.g ., Smith and Gaskin , Aarefjord et al . , Börjesson et al .…”

Cetaceans

“…Movements have been related directly to prey concentrations (96) and to indirect indicators SCIENCE, VOL. 244 of prey, such as temperature variations (97), sea-surface chlorophyll concentrations (98), and such stationary features as depth and bottom type (99,100).…”