North Pacific humpback whales are a celebrated conservation success, rebounding from extensive commercial whaling. Yet they remain vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a multifaceted stressor that can exacerbate existing threats. During 2013–2016, a Northeast Pacific marine heatwave severely reduced forage availability in their feeding grounds, concurrent with diminished whale recruitment and increased mortality. We an...

The drivers of animal social structures remain poorly understood, particularly in species such as cetaceans that are wide‐ranging and challenging to study. Understanding the factors shaping sociality can shed light on population ecology, gene flow, and information transmission. Here, we investigated variation in social structure among three independent island‐associated stocks of common bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus...

Photo‐identification (photo‐ID) is a widely used, non‐invasive method for monitoring individual animals, including humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ; HBWs), and has provided valuable insights into their population dynamics, movement patterns, and social structures. Traditional identification relies on the trailing edge and ventral pigment patterns of the tail fluke (fluke‐ID); however, not all whales present their fluk...