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LENGTH‐WEIGHT RELATIONSHIPS IN THE SPINNER DOLPHIN ( STENELLA LONGIROSTRIS )
Author(s) -
Perrin William F.,
Dolar Ma. Louella L.,
Chan Cynthia M.,
Chivers Susan J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
marine mammal science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.723
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1748-7692
pISSN - 0824-0469
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2005.tb01264.x
Subject(s) - cetacea , biology , fishery , zoology , geography
Models of weight relative to length have a number of uses in marine mammalogy. For example, as recommended by Ridgway and Fenner (1982) and McBain (2001), in husbandry the condition of a captive or rescued dolphin can be assessed by comparing its weight with normative values at length in healthy animals. Comparative studies of functional morphology and behavior, such as those of Pabst et al. (1999) and the recent study showing a positive correlation in primates between testis/body weight ratio and sperm competition in breeding (Dixson 1998), require information on body weight, but few weight data are available for large marine vertebrates; often only lengths are collected. Models of ecosystem structure and energetics, such as those of Tamura (2003) and Trites et al. (1997) in attempting to assess prey consumption and competition with fisheries by marine cetaceans, depend critically on estimates of mass for the various species components, but again few estimates are available for whales and dolphins. Length-weight models serve as tools for conversion of large bodies of length data to weight estimates for such studies. We provide here lengthweight equations for the spinner dolphin to complement those available for a number of other small cetaceans (values and references provided below).