ArticleRoyal Society open science2018
High pregnancy rates in humpback whales (
Article in Royal Society open science, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Marine heatwaves suppress nutrient utilization and reproductive flexibility in humpback whales.iScience · 2026Article
- A 26-Year Record of Seasonality and Interannual Variability in Marine Mammal Sightings From Northern Marguerite Bay, Antarctica.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Reproductive Science Methods for Marine Mammals.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Longer rorqual whale mothers produce more female offspring.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Mapping encounters between Antarctic krill fishing vessels and air-breathing krill predators using acoustic data from the fishery.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- CS-PHOC: weekly census counts of Southern Ocean phocids at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island.Scientific data · 2024Article
- Demographic and physiological signals of reproductive events in humpback whales on a southwest pacific breeding ground.Conservation physiology · 2024Article
- Plasticity and seasonality of the vertical migration behaviour of Antarctic krill using acoustic data from fishing vessels.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Don't mind if I do: Arctic humpback whales respond to winter foraging opportunities before migration.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Prolonged baleen hormone cycles suggest atypical reproductive endocrinology of female bowhead whales.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Assessment of a non-invasive approach to pregnancy diagnosis in gray whales through drone-based photogrammetry and faecal hormone analysis.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Estimating reproductive costs in marine mammal bioenergetic models: a review of current knowledge and data availability.Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- Variation in blubber cortisol levels in a recovering humpback whale population inhabiting a rapidly changing environment.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Demography of an ice-obligate mysticete in a region of rapid environmental change.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Origins of juvenile green sea turtles (Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Intra-seasonal variation in feeding rates and diel foraging behaviour in a seasonally fasting mammal, the humpback whale.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Intra-season variations in distribution and abundance of humpback whales in the West Antarctic Peninsula using cruise vessels as opportunistic platforms.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Round-trip migration and energy budget of a breeding female humpback whale in the Northeast Atlantic.PloS one · 2022Article
- The Southern Ocean Exchange: porous boundaries between humpback whale breeding populations in southern polar waters.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Untapped potential of physiology, behaviour and immune markers to predict range dynamics and marginality.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Antarctic humpback whales are recovering from near extirpation from commercial whaling. To understand the dynamics of this recovery and establish a baseline to monitor impacts of a rapidly changing environment, we investigated sex ratios and pregnancy rates of females within the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) feeding population. DNA profiling of 577 tissue samples (2010-2016) identified 239 males and 268 females. Blubber progesterone levels indicated 63.5% of the females biopsied were pregnant. This proportion varied significantly across years, from 36% in 2010 to 86% in 2014. A comparison of samples collected in summer versus fall showed significant increases in the proportion of females present (50% to 59%) and pregnant (59% to 72%), consistent with demographic variation in migratory timing. We also found evidence of annual reproduction among females; 54.5% of females accompanied by a calf were pregnant. These high pregnancy rates are consistent with a population recovering from past exploitation, but appear inconsistent with recent estimates of WAP humpback population growth. Thus, our results will help to better understand population growth potential and set a current baseline from which to determine the impact of climate change and variability on fecundity and reproductive rates.
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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.