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Deceased calf-carrying by female Arctic killer whale suggests species-wide epimeletic behaviorNARA Subscribed
Carrying dead calves is an epimeletic behaviour (caregiving or attentive actions towards injured or dead individuals) documented in several social cetacean species. During focal follows using a drone, we recorded an adult female killer whale ( Orcinus orca ) in the eastern Canadian Arctic carrying a deceased calf by its pectoral fins. Although the calf possessed several injuries, the cause of death was unclear. Similar account...
The Forgotten Pink Salmon in the Laurentian Great Lakes: An Unexpected Invasion With Insights for Three OceansNARA Subscribed
Introductions of species outside their native range, such as pink salmon ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ) in the Laurentian Great Lakes, can serve as unplanned experiments that provide new insights into ecological adaptation. We synthesize available information on the understudied Great Lakes pink salmon invasion and highlight how this case can inform research and management related to expansions and invasions of this species in the...
Correcting Lipid Extraction Effects on Nitrogen Isotopic Values ( δ 15 N ) in Cetacean SkinNARA Subscribed
Stable isotopes of carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) are widely used to study the feeding ecology of cetaceans, as they provide critical insights into diet and migratory behaviors. Lipids in tissues may bias the interpretation of δ 13 C. Because of this, lipids need to be extracted before measuring stable isotope ratios, but their removal may alter δ 15 N values. Using nearly 900 skin samples of five cetacean species, this...
Waterfowl Move Less in Heterogeneous and Human‐Populated Landscapes, With Implications for Spread of Avian Influenza VirusesNARA Subscribed
Animal movements contribute to the spread of infectious diseases and are driven in part by environmental conditions. We investigated the links among the environment, animal movement, and infectious disease dynamics in waterfowl, which are among the primary wildlife hosts of avian influenza viruses. By combining telemetry data on 4606 individuals from 26 waterfowl species with data on land cover, weather, and vegetation, we fou...
Same-sex socio-sexual interactions among male narwhalNARA Subscribed
Same-sex socio-sexual behavior is seemingly ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. Although difficult to observe in wild cetaceans, aerial imagery using drones has drastically improved our ability to document such behaviors. In 2017, off northern Baffin Island, Canada, a group of eight adult male narwhals were recorded engaging in same-sex socio-sexual behavior. To describe and analyse the recorded behaviors, we developed an et...
Introduction This study examines 20 years of killer whale ( Orcinus orca ) sightings (2002–2023) in the eastern Canadian Arctic, drawing from a comprehensive sighting database spanning 1850–2023. Despite inherent biases favoring data collection near communities and coastal areas, spatiotemporal analyses reveal significant shifts in killer whale distribution linked to changing sea ice conditions. Methods We developed a clusteri...
Climate change introduces threatened killer whale populations and conservation challenges to the ArcticNARA Subscribed
The Arctic is the fastest‐warming region on the planet, and the lengthening ice‐free season is opening Arctic waters to sub‐Arctic species such as the killer whale ( Orcinus orca ). As apex predators, killer whales can cause significant ecosystem‐scale changes. Setting conservation priorities for killer whales and their Arctic prey species requires knowledge of their evolutionary history and demographic trajectory. Using whole...
A widespread pattern in vertebrate life-history evolution is for species to evolve towards either fast or slow life histories; however, the underlying causes of this pattern remain unclear. Toothed whales (Odontoceti) are a diverse group with a range of body sizes and life histories, making them an ideal model to investigate potential drivers of this dichotomy. Using ancestral reconstruction, we identified that certain groups...
Marine protected areas (MPAs), particularly large MPAs, are increasing in number and size around the globe in part to facilitate the conservation of marine megafauna under the assumption that large-scale MPAs better align with vagile life histories; however, this alignment is not well established. Using a global tracking dataset from 36 species across five taxa, chosen to reflect the span of home range size in highly mobile ma...
While the impact of ecological changes on Arctic marine mammals remains largely unknown, quantifying variability in resource use among conspecifics can serve as an indication of adaptive plasticity and help assess species vulnerability to climate‐induced changes. We measured within‐tooth δ 15 N and δ 13 C profiles of narwhals ( Monodon monoceros ) sampled 35 years apart from Baffin Bay, Nunavut, Canada, to evaluate intrapopula...
Earlier winter/spring runoff and snowmelt during warmer winters lead to lower summer chlorophyll‐ a in north temperate lakesNARA Subscribed
Winter conditions, such as ice cover and snow accumulation, are changing rapidly at northern latitudes and can have important implications for lake processes. For example, snowmelt in the watershed—a defining feature of lake hydrology because it delivers a large portion of annual nutrient inputs—is becoming earlier. Consequently, earlier and a shorter duration of snowmelt are expected to affect annual phytoplankton biomass. To...
Plant spectral diversity as a surrogate for species, functional and phylogenetic diversity across a hyper‐diverse biogeographic regionNARA Subscribed
Aim With plant biodiversity under global threat, there is an urgent need to monitor the spatial distribution of multiple axes of biodiversity. Remote sensing is a critical tool in this endeavour. One remote sensing approach for detecting biodiversity is based on the hypothesis that the spectral diversity of plant communities is a surrogate of multiple dimensions of biodiversity. We investigated the generality of this ‘surrogac...