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July 2025

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New publication: Testing the waters - attempts by killer whales to provision people
by Jared Towers 01 Jul '25

01 Jul '25

Dear Marmam colleagues, On behalf of my co-authors, I’m pleased to share our paper recently published open-access in the Journal of Comparative Psychology which presents and discusses cases of killer whales offering people prey and other items. Abstract: Altruistic behaviors such as prey sharing are prosocial acts that can instigate and perpetuate various forms of reciprocity. Subsequent relationship dynamics provide a foundation for the evolution of societal norms and associated encephalization in social taxa, like primates and dolphins. Some cultures within these families benefit from interactions with other mammal species but accounts of any wild animals attempting to provision humans are extremely rare. In this article, we present 34 cases of both sexes and all age classes of killer whales (Orcinus orca) offering prey and other items to people who were on boats (n =21), in the water (n=11), and on shore (n= 2) in four oceans. A total of 18 species were offered—six fishes, five mammals, three invertebrates, two birds, one reptile, and one seaweed. In almost every case the whales awaited a human response before subsequently reacting. The occurrence of these events suggests a limited cost to exploratory behaviors in some populations of this species. We suggest these apparently nonrandom cases may be representative of interspecific generalized altruism. This behavior may represent some of the first accounts of any wild predator intentionally using prey and other items to directly explore human behavior and thus may highlight the evolutionary convergence of intellect between highest order primates and dolphins. Citation: Towers, J. R., Visser, I. N., & Prigollini, V. (2025). Testing the waters: Attempts by wild killer whales (Orcinus orca) to provision people (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/com0000422

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MARMAM] New publication: Anisakid nematodes in Black Sea harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena ssp. relicta) from the Turkish Western Black Sea: with notes about association with body length and stomach content
by Erdem Danyer 30 Jun '25

30 Jun '25

Dear MARMAM colleagues, On behalf of my co-authors, I am pleased to share our new publication: Danyer, E., Aytemiz Danyer, I., Tonay, A. M., Dede, A., & Akkaya, H. (2025). Anisakid nematodes in Black Sea harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena ssp . relicta) from the Turkish Western Black Sea : with notes about association with body length and stomach content. Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, 49(2), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.55730/1300-0128.4374 Abstract: Parasites are naturally present in the natural gastrointestinal fauna of marine mammals without necessarily causing any pathology. However, under various stress conditions, parasites can cause pathological disorders in the gastrointestinal system. There is insufficient information on parasite fauna of mammals living in the Black Sea waters off the Turkish coast. This study examined the stomach contents of bycaught and stranded harbour porpoises collected between 2002 and 2003 along the Turkish coast of the western Black Sea for parasitic presence. In a previous stomach content study, 450 nematode fragments (including 232 intact specimens) were occasionally collected from 33 harbour porpoises (27 females and 6 males) and preserved in 70% ethanol at room temperature. Nema- todes were detected in 78.5% of the examined harbour porpoise stomachs. The nematodes were identified as Contracaecum spp. and Hysterothylacium spp. in their larval forms, as well as adult specimens of the family Anisakidae (Railliet & Henry, 1912). Understanding the parasitological fauna of cetaceans is crucial for both their health and conservation efforts. This study presents the first findings on the parasitological findings of harbour porpoises from the Turkish coast of the western Black Sea and explores the association between stomach contents, parasitological findings, and body length. You can find the open access paper here: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/veterinary/vol49/iss2/7/ or here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391138263_Anisakid_nematodes_in_Bl… Kind regards, Dr. Erdem DANYER, PhD, MSc Turkish Marine Research Foundation erdemdanyer(a)gmail.com +90 5362557666 +39 3284627938 Çevreye olan sorumluluğumuzu düşünerek gerekmedikçe çıktı almayınız. Please consider your environmental responsibility before printing

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