Despite frequently stranding, little is known about free‐ranging long‐finned pilot whales ( Globicephala melas edwardii ) in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This study used long‐term data to determine the occurrence, seasonal site‐fidelity, group size distribution and individual identity of pilot whales off the east coast of New Zealand. Photographs ( n = 53,857) and sightings metadata from 81 pilot whale groups were collected opportuni...

The relative importance of various sensory modalities can shift in response to evolutionary transitions, resulting in changes to underlying gene families encoding their reception systems. The rapid birth‐and‐death process underlying the evolution of the large olfactory receptor (OR) gene family has accelerated genomic‐level change for the sense of smell in particular. The transition from the land to sea in marine mammals is an...

The 6.7-million-hectare Raja Ampat archipelago is home to Indonesia’s largest reef manta ray ( Mobula alfredi ) population and a representative network of nine marine protected areas (MPAs). However, the population dynamics of M. alfredi in the region are still largely unknown. Using our photo-identification database, we fitted modified POPAN mark-recapture models with transience and per capita recruitment parameters to estima...

Changes in habitat availability and prey abundance are predicted to adversely influence survival and reproduction of wildlife in the Southern Ocean. Some populations of southern right whale (SRW; Eubalaena australis ) are showing dramatic changes in habitat use. Surveys were undertaken in the austral winters of 2020 and 2021 at the key nursery and socialising ground for New Zealand SRWs: Port Ross, Auckland Islands, with 548 e...

Large predators typically feed on proportionally sized prey but the world's largest animals, baleen whales, bulk feed on plankton and small fishes. While most baleen whales migrate to feed on polar aggregations of nutritious zooplankton prey, Bryde's whales ( Balaenoptera edeni brydei and B. e. edeni ) inhabit less productive warm‐temperate waters with variable prey abundance and quality. Off New Zealand, Bryde's whales target...

The behaviour and spatial use patterns of juvenile manta rays within their critical nursery habitats remain largely undocumented. Here, we report on the horizontal movements and residency of juvenile reef manta rays ( Mobula alfredi ) at a recently discovered nursery site in the Wayag lagoon, Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we provide further corroborative evidence that the lagoon serves as an impor...

Runs of homozygosity (ROH) occur when offspring inherit haplotypes that are identical by descent from each parent. Length distributions of ROH are informative about population history; specifically, the probability of inbreeding mediated by mating system and/or population demography. Here, we investigated whether variation in killer whale ( Orcinus orca ) demographic history is reflected in genome‐wide heterozygosity and ROH l...

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement aga...

Multi-species feeding associations (MSFAs) are temporary communities of animals exploiting the same or co-occurrent resources. Their dynamics are species dependent, often creating competitive interactions, but they can also increase foraging efficiency and ultimately individual fitness. The foraging behaviors of some species can enhance prey capture by others, with different roles depending on the species present. Here, we use...

Cetacean tourism in Aotearoa New Zealand is now over 30 years old and has experienced substantial growth in visitor numbers and operations. The industry is remarkably diverse, targeting several dolphin and whale species, and encompassing varied habitats in coastal waters, fiords and submarine canyons. The knowledge and experience collected over these past 30 years has both advanced the global understanding of cetacean tourism,...

Effective management of wild animal populations relies on an understanding of their spatio-temporal distributions. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a non-invasive method to investigate the distribution of free-ranging species that reliably produce sound. Critically endangered Antarctic blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus intermedia ) (ABWs) co-occur with pygmy blue whales ( B. m. brevicauda ) (PBWs) around New Zealand. Nat...

Reconstruction of the demographic and evolutionary history of populations assuming a consensus tree‐like relationship can mask more complex scenarios, which are prevalent in nature. An emerging genomic toolset, which has been most comprehensively harnessed in the reconstruction of human evolutionary history, enables molecular ecologists to elucidate complex population histories. Killer whales have limited extrinsic barriers to...

In the context of a changing climate, understanding the environmental drivers of marine megafauna distribution is important for conservation success. The extent of humpback whale breeding habitats and the impact of temperature variation on their availability are both unknown. We used 19 years of dedicated survey data from seven countries and territories of Oceania (1,376 survey days), to investigate humpback whale breeding hab...

For cetaceans, population structure is traditionally determined by molecular genetics or photographically identified individuals. Acoustic data, however, has provided information on movement and population structure with less effort and cost than traditional methods in an array of taxa. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce a continually evolving vocal sexual display, or song, that is similar among all males in...

Bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ) in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, have been studied for almost two decades. Since 2003, fewer than 150 dolphins visited the bay during each season and the local unit has declined 7.5% annually from 1997 to 2006. The causes of decline are unclear but probably include mortality and emigration. Here, we used a long‐term database to estimate reproductive parameters of female bottlenose...