New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
First report on the stomach contents of long-finned pilot whales, Globicephala
melas, stranded in New Zealand
E. Beatson
S. O’Shea
Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute
Auckland University of Technology
Private Bag 92006
Auckland 1020, New Zealand
emma.beatson@aut.ac.nz
M. Ogle
New Zealand Department of Conservation
Golden Bay
PO Box 166
Takaka 7142
New Zealand
Abstract Stomach contents of the long-finned
pilot whale, Globicephala melas, are reported for the first
time from New Zealand waters. Analyses based on two male and three
female whales (2.5 - 5.3 m in length) that stranded on Farewell Spit,
Golden Bay, South Island in December 2005 revealed a diet comprised
exclusively of cephalopods (2-33 lower cephalopod beaks per stomach).
Two genera of cephalopod from two orders; arrow squid, Nototodarus spp.
(Teuthoidea: Ommastrephidae), and common octopus, Pinnoctopus
cordiformis (Octopoda: Octopodidae) were represented. A further
five pilot whale stomachs were examined and found to be empty.
Keywords Cephalopoda; diet; Globicephala
melas; long-finned pilot whale; New Zealand; stranding
Z06025; Online publication date 28 February 2007; Received 18 July
2006; accepted 20 December 2006
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2007, Vol. 34: 51 - 56
0301 - 4223/07/3401 - 0051 © The Royal Society of New Zealand
2007
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