Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-5kfdg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-05T19:09:48.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rare sighting of an anomalously white harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the Moray Firth, north-east Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2013

Kevin P. Robinson  and
Gary N. Haskins
Kevin P. Robinson*
Affiliation:
Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit (CRRU), PO Box 11307, Banff AB45 3WB, Scotland, UK
Gary N. Haskins
Affiliation:
Cetacean Research & Rescue Unit (CRRU), PO Box 11307, Banff AB45 3WB, Scotland, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: K.P. RobinsonCetacean Research & Rescue Unit, PO Box 11307, Banff AB45 3WB, Scotland, UK email: kev.robinson@crru.org.uk
Get access

Abstract

This paper describes a rare sighting of an anomalously white harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the coastal waters of the outer Moray Firth in north-east Scotland. The recording provides the first photographs of such an individual from the northern North Sea. At an estimated body length of 1.5 m, the present animal had evidently survived to adulthood, in spite of its condition, confirming the potential longevity of such hypo-pigmented individuals in the wild. Further recaptures of this naturally-marked animal may provide valuable information on the site fidelity and long-term spatial movements of these notoriously difficult to study cetaceans.

Keywords

harbour porpoisePhocoena phocoenahypo-pigmentationleucismMoray FirthNorth Sea

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 6 , 2013 , e23
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Caro, T. (2011) The functions of black-and-white coloration in mammals. In Stevens, M. and Merilaita, S. (eds) Animal camouflage: mechanisms and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 298–329.Google Scholar
De Boer, M.N. (2010) First record of a white rough toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis) off West Africa including notes on rough-toothed dolphin surface behaviour. Marine Biodiversity Records 3, e66. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1755267210000539.Google Scholar
Ducrest, A-L., Keller, L. and Roulin, A. (2008) Pleiotropy in the melanocortin system, coloration and behavioural syndromes. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23, 502–510.Google Scholar
Evans, P.G.H. (1997) Ecological studies of the harbour porpoise in Shetland. North Scotland. Godalming: Report for WWF-UK, 106 pp.Google Scholar
Fertl, D., Barros, N.B., Rowlet, R.A., Estes, S. and Richlen, M. (2004) An update on anomalously white cetaceans, including the first account for the pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata graffmani). Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals 3, 163–166.Google Scholar
Fertl, D., Pusser, L.T. and Long, J.L. (1999) First record of an albino bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in the Gulf of Mexico, with a review of anomalously white cetaceans. Marine Mammal Science 15, 227–234.Google Scholar
Fertl, D. and Rosel, P. (2002) Albinism. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopaedia of marine mammals. New York: Academic Press, pp. 16–18.Google Scholar
Forestell, P.H., Paton, D.A., Hodda, P. and Kaufman, G.D. (2001) Observations of a hypo-pigmented humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, off East Coast Australia: 1991–2000. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 47, 437–450.Google Scholar
Hain, J.H.W. and Leatherwood, S. (1982) Two sightings of white pilot whales, Globicephala melaena, and summarized records of anomalously white cetaceans. Journal of Mammalogy 63, 338–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keener, W., Szczepaniak, I., Adam, Ü., Webber, M. and Stern, J.A. (2011) First records of anomalously white harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from the Pacific Ocean. Journal of Marine Animals and Their Ecology 4, 19–24.Google Scholar
MacIntosh, W.D. (1912) On a white porpoise. Notes from the Gatty Marine Laboratory, St. Andrews, no 33. Annual Magazine for Natural History 10, 117–119.Google Scholar
Nascimento, L.F., Spinelli, L.H.P., Santos, E., Queiroz, R.E.M., Pansard, K.C.A., Medeiros, P.I.A.P., Gondim, M.A., Jesus, A.H., Silva, F.J.L. and Yamamoto, E.M. (2008) Atypical coloration in a specimen of estuarine dolphin, Sotalia guianensis, on the littoral of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, north-east Brazil. Marine Biodiversity Records 1, e89. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1755267207008986.Google Scholar
Peters, N. (1929) Ueber einen weissen Tummler. Der Fischerbote 22, 354–355.Google Scholar
Quigley, D.T.G. and Flannery, K. (2002) Leucoptic harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena (L.). Irish Naturalists' Journal 27, 170.Google Scholar
Robinson, K.P., Baumgartner, N., Eisfeld, S.M., Clark, N.M., Culloch, R.M., Haskins, G.N., Zapponi, L., Whaley, A.R., Weare, J.S. and Tetley, M.J. (2007) The summer distribution and occurrence of cetaceans in the coastal waters of the outer southern Moray Firth in northeast Scotland (UK). Lutra 50, 19–30.Google Scholar
Stockin, K.A. and Visser, I.N. (2005) Anomalously pigmented common dolphins (Delphinus sp.) off northern New Zealand. Aquatic Mammals 31, 43–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visser, I.N., Fertl, D. and Todd Pusser, L. (2004) Melanistic southern right-whale dolphins (Lissodelphis peronii) off Kaikoura, New Zealand, with records of other anomalously all-black cetaceans. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 38, 833–836.Google Scholar