Research Document - 2014/018
Genetic kinship analyses of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) sampled in Foxe Basin and Cumberland Sound, Nunavut, Canada
By Lianne D. Postma, Lucy Johnson, Denise Tenkula, Stephen D. Petersen, Bernard LeBlanc, Jeff W. Higdon, Cory Matthews, and Steve H. Ferguson
Abstract
Knowledge of the genetic relatedness between individuals, or kinship, can be a useful tool for research in behaviour, evolution and conservation especially in systems with limited genetic differentiation. Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in the eastern Canadian Arctic and western Greenland belong to a single population that is highly sex- and age-structured over its range. Kinship analysis of these different groups may provide information relevant to management considerations when addressing impacts of industrial development and other human activities on these whales. We analyzed biopsy samples of bowheads taken from summer aggregations (2008-2012) of animals in Foxe Basin and Cumberland Sound, Nunavut for patterns of relatedness and individual relationship categories. Overall, neither group of bowheads were composed of related individuals, though the relatedness measure for Foxe Basin was larger than that of Cumberland Sound. In addition, most parent-offspring pairs identified by the analyses involved whales sampled in Foxe Basin. These results provide genetic evidence to support the observations that Foxe Basin is an important nursery area for bowheads. The results of this study also demonstrate the potential to construct pedigrees from biopsy sampled whales in this population. Such pedigrees would have value for understanding bowhead dispersal, mating systems, reproductive success and other life history patterns in this population.
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