ArticleConservation physiology2013
Overcoming the challenges of studying conservation physiology in large whales: a review of available methods.
Article in Conservation physiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 88 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
88 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 223 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing oceans' health through biopsy sampling in free-ranging marine mammals: a systematic review (2014-2024).Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Pooled it
- An experimental approach to assess the combined effects of multiple stressors on a large vertebrate species.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Optimizing cetacean blow collection methods under controlled conditions: implications for further non-invasive UAV-based sampling of the cetacean respiratory microbiome in the wild.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Candida Infections in Marine Mammals: Epidemiology, Antifungal Resistance, and One Health Implications.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Validation of aerial photogrammetry methods to measure body size, condition and mass in small cetaceans.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- A Dozen Years of Baleen Hormones: Validations, Discoveries, Surprises, and Next Steps.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Challenging 10 misconceptions in conservation physiology.Conservation physiology · 2026Article
- Drone Infrared Thermography for Detecting Skin Thermal Anomalies in Bottlenose Dolphins: Preliminary Insights.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Optimized methods for obtaining sequencing-quality RNA from blubber of free-ranging cetaceans collected under field conditions.Conservation physiology · 2026Article
- Deep breath out: molecular survey of selected pathogens in blow and skin biopsies from North Atlantic cetaceans.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- Successful Rescue of a Juvenile Humpback Whale (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Respiration rates and inferred mass-specific field metabolic rates decline with body size among five sympatric cetaceans.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2025Article
- Astrocyte properties in cetacean cortices.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Tracking Epidermal Cortisol and Oxytocin in Managed Bottlenose Dolphins as Potential Non-Invasive Physiological Welfare Indicators.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- When DNA Tells the Tale: High-Resolution Melting as a Forensic Tool for Mediterranean Cetacean Identification.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Multiyear Baleen Endocrine Profiles Suggest a Longer Estimated Gestation in Southern Right Whales (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Closing the air gap: the use of drones for studying wildlife ecophysiology.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- A geometric morphometric approach for detecting different reproductive stages of a free-ranging killer whale Orcinus orca population.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Variation in faecal testosterone levels in male gray whales on a foraging ground relative to maturity and timing.Conservation physiology · 2025Article
- A minimally invasive marine mammal sex determination method using epidermal tissue recovered from suction-cup tags.PloS one · 2025Article
28 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 8 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Large whales are subjected to a variety of conservation pressures that could be better monitored and managed if physiological information could be gathered readily from free-swimming whales. However, traditional approaches to studying physiology have been impractical for large whales, because there is no routine method for capture of the largest species and there is presently no practical method of obtaining blood samples from free-swimming whales. We review the currently available techniques for gathering physiological information on large whales using a variety of non-lethal and minimally invasive (or non-invasive) sample matrices. We focus on methods that should produce information relevant to conservation physiology, e.g. measures relevant to stress physiology, reproductive status, nutritional status, immune response, health, and disease. The following four types of samples are discussed: faecal samples, respiratory samples ('blow'), skin/blubber samples, and photographs. Faecal samples have historically been used for diet analysis but increasingly are also used for hormonal analyses, as well as for assessment of exposure to toxins, pollutants, and parasites. Blow samples contain many hormones as well as respiratory microbes, a diverse array of metabolites, and a variety of immune-related substances. Biopsy dart samples are widely used for genetic, contaminant, and fatty-acid analyses and are now being used for endocrine studies along with proteomic and transcriptomic approaches. Photographic analyses have benefited from recently developed quantitative techniques allowing assessment of skin condition, ectoparasite load, and nutritional status, along with wounds and scars from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. Field application of these techniques has the potential to improve our understanding of the physiology of large whales greatly, better enabling assessment of the relative impacts of many anthropogenic and ecological pressures.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.