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Stomach Contents of a Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon Ampullatus) Stranded at Hiddensee, Baltic Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Roland Lick  and
Uwe Piatkowski
Roland Lick
Affiliation:
Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Westküste, Universität Kiel, Werftstrasse 6, D-25761 Büsum, Germany.
Uwe Piatkowski
Affiliation:
Institut für Meereskunde an der Universität Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany
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Extract

The stomach of a female northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus (Odontoceti: Ziphiidae) stranded at Hiddensee Island, western Baltic Sea, on 23 August 1993 contained 7465 cephalopod beaks (4934 upper and 2531 lower). The lower beaks were identified, their rostral lengths were measured and used to estimate size and mass of the cephalopods consumed by the whale. All lower beaks belonged to one species, the boreoatlantic gonate squid Gonatus fabricii (Cephalopoda: Teuthoidea) indicating a mean squid mantle length of 21·9 cm and a mean squid wet mass of 220·7 g. The total squid biomass in the whale's stomach represented by the lower beaks was 598·6 kg. Assuming that all upper beaks belong to G. fabricii, the squid biomass taken by the whale was estimated to be 1089 kg. Besides the beaks partly digested squid gladii, spermatophores and 15 specimens of the fish parasite Sphyrion lumpi (Crustacea: Copepoda) occurred in the stomach. No fish remains were found.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 643 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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