The global distribution of Orcinus orca (orcas/killer whales) encompasses populations which differ from each other. Saddle patch shapes and sizes were compared for nearly 4,000 individuals, in 48 geographically or ecologically divided groups/populations/ecotypes (GP/E), in four Ocean Basins. Some Antarctic GP/E had five shapes, contrary to previous studies, which found only one shape in these Southern GP/E. Pacific Resident ec...

Despite the ecological importance of leopard seals ( Hydrurga leptonyx ) as apex marine predators, little is known about their reproductive biology. To address this paucity, we reviewed leopard seal birth and pup records and applied a standardised age-class classification system to differentiate between births/newborns (offspring ≤ 14 days old) and pups (> 14 days but < 6 months old). We compiled 19 birth/newborn and 141 pup r...

In contrast to previous reports that leopard seals ( Hydrurga leptonyx ) are rare vagrants to New Zealand, we show that this species is a regular member of the marine fauna of this region. We present a first analysis from the New Zealand Leopard Seal Database – an extensive collation of 2,711 records of leopard seals within New Zealand between 1200 and 2018. Of these records, 51.2% ( n = 1,408) were photographic. Leopard seal...

Aim Edaphic heterogeneity may be an important driver of population differentiation in the Amazon but remains to be investigated in trees. We compared the phylogeographic structure across the geographic distribution of two Protium (Burseraceae) species with different degrees of edaphic specialization: Protium alvarezianum , an edaphic specialist of white‐sand habitat islands; and Protium subserratum , an edaphic generalist foun...