Southern resident killer whales are increasingly suffering from skin diseases that leave large blotches on their distinctive black-and-white colouration, new research says.
The research, published Thursday in the journal PLOS One, analyzed photographs of more than 18,000 orca sightings from 2004 to 2016 in the Salish Sea, finding that the skin lesions have become "strikingly" more prevalent, posing another potential threat to a population already facing a range of challenges.
It says scientists hypothesized the lesions could be an infectious agent and an indicator of the whales' declining ability to fend off illness. Joseph Gaydos, chief scientist for the University of California, Davis, school of veterinary medicine and the study's lead author, said in a statement that before looking at the data they had no idea the prevalence of skin lesions was increasing so dramatically.The study involved 141 whales, 99 per cent of which had evidence of skin lesions at some point in the study.
“ helps inform us in terms of whether these changes may be indicative of something that's going on systemically and might impact the health of the animals,” said Raverty.
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