Dear colleagues,

 

As part of a larger bioenergetic study on baleen whales, I am looking for data on right whale and humpback whale morphometrics and body condition from carcasses (strandings, commercial/scientific catches, and similar). I am interested in data from all age classes (adult, juvenile, calves). Knowing that detailed data on these two species is quite scarce, I am looking for any of the following information (I am obviously not expecting to find all this information from the same animals):

 

Morphometrics:

-Body length (as well as distance between different body parts)

-Girth (or half girth) (single or multiple sites)

-Blubber thickness (single or multiple sites)

-Total body weight

-Blubber weight

-Muscle weight

-Visceral fat weight

-Bone weight

-Weight of other internal organs (heart, kidney, liver)

-Stomach size/volume

 

Chemical composition:

-Blubber lipid concentration (total lipids, protein and water)

-Muscle lipid concentration

-Visceral fat lipid concentration

-Bone lipid concentration

-Lipid concentration in other organs (heart, kidney, liver)

-Oil yield from different tissues and organs

 

Reproductive variables:

-Sex

-Foetus length/weight

-Number of corpora (Corpus luteum, Corpora albicantia and Corpora abberantia) in ovaries

-Size of uterine cornua/horns

-Testis volume/weight

 

If your lab/organisation have any of this information (for either right whales or humpback whales), and potentially willing to share it, please email me on f.christiansen@murdoch.edu.au.

 

Best regards,

 

Fredrik Christiansen

 

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Cetacean Research Unit, School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
+61 417 502 098, f.christiansen@murdoch.edu.au

http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=vkA5Y3EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fredrik_Christiansen3/?ev=hdr_xprf