Records of Postmortem Attentive Behavior on an Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) Calf and Implications for Conservation in Kuching Bay, Sarawak, East Malaysia

Peter C.; Minton G.; Poh A.N.Z.; Goh A.J.; Tuen A.A.; Kiyui S.; Bressem M.-F.V.; Tisen O.B. · Aquatic Mammals (2023) · DOI: 10.1578/am.49.1.2023.44

Resumen

Postmortem Attentive Behaviors (PABs), also known as epimeletic behaviors, have been observed in terrestrial mammalian species, such as primates, giraffes, and elephants (Nakamichi et al., 1996; Douglas-Hamilton et al., 2006; Li et al., 2012; Strauss & Muller, 2013), as well as in aquatic mam-mals (Reggente et al., 2016; Bearzi & Reggente, 2017; Bearzi et al., 2017). In cetaceans, epimeletic behavior is described as one or more adults attending to an injured, distressed, dying, or deceased animal by keeping it afloat if sinking, pushing it down if buoyant, performing “resuscitation” attempts, and/or carrying it on the dorsum, head, rostrum, or in the mouth (Reggente et al., 2016; Bearzi & Reggente, 2017). Most records of cetacean PAB involved Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis), common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) (e.g., Porter, 2002; Kuczaj et al., 2015; Bearzi et al., 2017, 2018; Cheng et al., 2018; Reggente et al., 2018; Pedrazzi et al., 2022). Until now, only one case of this behavior has been documented in Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella bre-virostris) from Balikpapan Bay, Indonesia (Kreb et al., 2020). Herein, we describe a rare event of PAB towards an Irrawaddy dolphin calf in Kuching Bay, Sarawak, East Malaysia, and its implications for conservation.