title: The world's most isolated and distinct whale population? Humpback whales of the Arabian Sea.
abstract: A clear understanding of population structure is essential for assessing conservation status and implementing management strategies. A small, non-migratory population of humpback whales in the Arabian Sea is classified as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, an assessment constrained by a lack of data, including limited understanding of its relationship to other populations. We analysed 11 microsatellite markers and mitochondrial DNA sequences extracted from 67 Arabian Sea humpback whale tissue samples and compared them to equivalent datasets from the Southern Hemisphere and North Pacific. Results show that the Arabian Sea population is highly distinct; estimates of gene flow and divergence times suggest a Southern Indian Ocean origin but indicate that it has been isolated for approximately 70,000 years, remarkable for a species that is typically highly migratory. Genetic diversity values are significantly lower than those obtained for Southern Hemisphere populations and signatures of ancient and recent genetic bottlenecks were identified. Our findings suggest this is the world's most isolated humpback whale population, which, when combined with low population abundance estimates and anthropogenic threats, raises concern for its survival. We recommend an amendment of the status of the population to "Critically Endangered" on the IUCN Red List.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pomilla
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States of America; Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Faculdade de Ciências Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.affiliation: Ocean Giants Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, United States of America; Environment Society of Oman, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: Environment Society of Oman, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman; World Wide Fund for Nature, Gabon, Libreville, Gabon.
authors.forename: Gianna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Minton
authors.affiliation: Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Findlay
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States of America; Ocean Giants Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Leslie
authors.affiliation: Environment Society of Oman, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman; Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ponnampalam
authors.affiliation: Environment Society of Oman, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States of America; Ocean Giants Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rosenbaum
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis; D056727:Endangered Species; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D050640:Humpback Whale / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019156:Indian Ocean; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial