Aquatic mammal

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An Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), a member of the infraorder Cetacea of the order Cetartiodactyla Amazon river dolphin.jpg
An Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), a member of the infraorder Cetacea of the order Cetartiodactyla

Aquatic and semiaquatic mammals are a diverse group of mammals that dwell partly or entirely in bodies of water. They include the various marine mammals who dwell in oceans, as well as various freshwater species, such as the European otter. They are not a taxon and are not unified by any distinct biological grouping, but rather their dependence on and integral relation to aquatic ecosystems. The level of dependence on aquatic life varies greatly among species. Among freshwater taxa, the Amazonian manatee and river dolphins are completely aquatic and fully dependent on aquatic ecosystems. Semiaquatic freshwater taxa include the Baikal seal, which feeds underwater but rests, molts, and breeds on land; and the capybara and hippopotamus which are able to venture in and out of water in search of food.

Contents

Mammal adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle vary considerably between species. River dolphins and manatees are both fully aquatic and therefore are completely tethered to a life in the water. Seals are semiaquatic; they spend the majority of their time in the water, but need to return to land for important activities such as mating, breeding and molting. In contrast, many other aquatic mammals, such as hippopotamus, capybara, and water shrews, are much less adapted to aquatic living. Likewise, their diet ranges considerably as well, anywhere from aquatic plants and leaves to small fish and crustaceans. They play major roles in maintaining aquatic ecosystems, beavers especially.

Aquatic mammals were the target for commercial industry, leading to a sharp decline in all populations of exploited species, such as beavers. Their pelts, suited for conserving heat, were taken during the fur trade and made into coats and hats. Other aquatic mammals, such as the Indian rhinoceros, were targets for sport hunting and had a sharp population decline in the 1900s. After it was made illegal, many aquatic mammals became subject to poaching. Other than hunting, aquatic mammals can be killed as bycatch from fisheries, where they become entangled in fixed netting and drown or starve. Increased river traffic, most notably in the Yangtze river, causes collisions between fast ocean vessels and aquatic mammals, and damming of rivers may land migratory aquatic mammals in unsuitable areas or destroy habitat upstream. The industrialization of rivers led to the extinction of the Chinese river dolphin, with the last confirmed sighting in 2004.

Taxonomy and evolution

Aquatic mammals vary greatly in size and shape
Castor canadensis.jpg
A North American beaver (Castor canadensis)
Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis).jpg
An Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis)
Inia.jpg
Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) at Duisburg Zoo
Otter in Southwold.jpg
Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) in Southwold, Suffolk, England
RiverOtterSwimmingOregonZoo.jpg
A North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) at the Oregon Zoo
Capybara Hattiesburg Zoo (70909b-42) 2560x1600.jpg
Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
Platypus.jpg
A platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) at the Sydney Aquarium
Hippo memphis.jpg
A partially submerged hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) at the Memphis Zoo
Chironectes minimus - Swedish Museum of Natural History - Stockholm, Sweden - DSC00658.JPG
A yapok (Chironectes minimus) taxidermy at the Swedish Museum of Natural History

Groups

This list covers only mammals that live in freshwater. For a list of saltwater mammals, see Marine mammal.

Evolution

Mesozoic

One of the first known proto-mammals similar to modern placentals was aquatic, the Jurassic mammaliaform Castorocauda . It seems to have been adapted to water much like a beaver, with teeth different in many ways from all other docodonts, presumably due to a difference in diet. Most docodonts had teeth specialized for an omnivorous diet. The teeth of Castorocauda suggest that the animal was a piscivore, feeding on fish and small invertebrates. The first two molars had cusps in a straight row, eliminating the grinding function suggesting that they were strictly for gripping and not for chewing. This feature of three cusps in a row is similar to the ancestral condition in mammal relatives (as seen in triconodonts), but is almost certainly a derived character in Castorocauda. These first molars were also recurved in a manner adapted to hold slippery prey once grasped. These teeth are very similar to the teeth seen in mesonychians, an extinct group of semiaquatic carnivorous ungulates, and resemble, to a lesser degree, the teeth of seals. [1]

Illustration of Castorocauda lutrasimilis, a semiaquatic mammal from the Jurassic Castorocauda BW.jpg
Illustration of Castorocauda lutrasimilis , a semiaquatic mammal from the Jurassic

Another docodontan, the Late Jurassic Haldanodon , has been suggested to be a platypus or desman-like swimmer and burrower, being well adapted to dig and swim and occurring in a wetland environment. [2]

The tritylodontid Kayentatherium has been suggested to be semiaquatic. Unlike Castorocauda and Haldanodon, it was an herbivore, being probably beaver or capybara-like in habits. [3]

Another lineage of Mesozoic mammals, the eutriconodonts, have been suggested to be aquatic animals with mixed results. Astroconodon occurred abundantly in freshwater lacustrine deposits and its molars were originally interpreted as being similar to those of piscivorous mammals like cetaceans and pinnipeds; by extension some researchers considered the possibility that all eutriconodonts were aquatic piscivores. [4] However, Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska and other researchers have latter found that the triconodont molars of eutriconodonts were more suited for a carnassial-like shearing action than the piercing and gripping function of piscivorous mammal molars, occluding instead of interlocking, and that Astroconodon's aquatic occurrences may be of little significance when most terrestrial tetrapod fossils are found in lacustrine environments anyway. [5]

However, two other eutriconodonts, Dyskritodon and Ichthyoconodon , occur in marine deposits with virtually no dental erosion, implying that they died in situ and are thus truly aquatic mammals. [6] Nonetheless, Ichthyoconodon may not be aquatic, but instead a gliding mammal. [7] [8] More recently, Yanoconodon and Liaoconodon have been interpreted as semiaquatic, bearing a long body and paddle-like limbs. [9]

A metatherian, the stagodontid Didelphodon , has been suggested to be aquatic, due to molar and skeleton similarities to sea otters. [10]

Cenozoic

An extinct genus, Satherium , is believed to be ancestral to South American river otters, having migrated to the New World during the Pliocene or early Pleistocene. [11] The South American continent houses the otter genus Lontra : the giant otter, the neotropical river otter, the southern river otter, and the marine otter. [12] The smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) of Asia may be its closest extant relative; similar behaviour, vocalizations, and skull morphology have been noted. [11]

The most popular theory of the origins of Hippopotamidae suggests that hippos and whales shared a common ancestor that branched off from other artiodactyls around 60 million years ago (mya). [13] [14] This hypothesized ancestral group likely split into two branches around 54 mya. [15] One branch would evolve into cetaceans, possibly beginning about 52 mya, with the protowhale Pakicetus and other early whale ancestors collectively known as Archaeoceti, which eventually underwent aquatic adaptation into the completely aquatic cetaceans. [16] The other branch became the anthracotheres, and all branches of the anthracotheres, except that which evolved into Hippopotamidae, became extinct during the Pliocene without leaving any descendants. [14] River dolphins are thought to have relictual distributions, that is, their ancestors originally occupied marine habitats, but were then displaced from these habitats by modern dolphin lineages. [17] [18] Many of the morphological similarities and adaptations to freshwater habitats arose due to convergent evolution; thus, a grouping of all river dolphins is paraphyletic. For example, Amazon river dolphins are actually more closely related to oceanic dolphins than to South Asian river dolphins. [19]

Illustration of Prorastomus, a sirenian from the Eocene Prorastomus BW.jpg
Illustration of Prorastomus , a sirenian from the Eocene

Sirenians, along with Proboscidea (elephants), group together with the extinct †Desmostylia and likely †Embrithopoda to form the Tethytheria. Tethytheria is thought to have evolved from primitive hoofed mammals ("condylarths") along the shores of the ancient Tethys Ocean. Tethytheria, combined with Hyracoidea (hyraxes), forms a clade called Paenungulata. Paenungulata and Tethytheria (especially the latter) are among the least controversial mammalian clades, with strong support from morphological and molecular interpretations. That is, elephants, hyraxes, and manatees share a common ancestry. [20] The ancestry of Sirenia is distinct from that of Cetacea and Pinnipedia, although they are thought to have evolved an aquatic lifestyle around the same time. [21]

The oldest fossil of the modern platypus dates back to about 100,000 years ago, during the Quaternary period. The extinct monotremes Teinolophos and Steropodon were once thought to be closely related to the modern platypus, [22] but more recent studies show that platypodes are more related to the modern echidnas than to these ancient forms and that at least Teinolophos was a rather different mammal lacking several speciations seen in platypodes. [23] However, the last common ancestor between platypodes and echidnas probably was aquatic, and echidnas thus secondarily became terrestrial. [24] Monotrematum sudamericanum is currently the oldest aquatic monotreme known. It has been found in Argentina, indicating monotremes were present in the supercontinent of Gondwana when the continents of South America and Australia were joined via Antarctica, or that monotremes existed along the shorelines of Antarctica in the early Cenozoic. [25]

Marine mammals

Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean for their existence. They include animals such as sea lions, whales, dugongs, sea otters and polar bears. Like other aquatic mammals, they do not represent a biological grouping. [26]

The humpback whale is a fully aquatic marine mammal. Humpback Whale underwater shot.jpg
The humpback whale is a fully aquatic marine mammal.

Marine mammal adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle vary considerably between species. Both cetaceans and sirenians are fully aquatic and therefore are obligate ocean dwellers. Pinnipeds are semiaquatic; they spend the majority of their time in the water, but need to return to land for important activities such as mating, breeding and molting. In contrast, both otters and the polar bear are much less adapted to aquatic living. [27] Likewise, their diet ranges considerably as well; some may eat zooplankton, [28] others may eat small fish, [29] and a few may eat other mammals. [30] While the number of marine mammals is small compared to those found on land, their roles in various ecosystems are large. They, namely sea otters and polar bears, play important roles in maintaining marine ecosystems, especially through regulation of prey populations. [31] [32] Their role in maintaining ecosystems makes them of particular concern considering 25% [33] of marine mammal species are currently threatened. [34]

Marine mammals were first hunted by aboriginal peoples for food and other resources. [35] They were also the target for commercial industry, leading to a sharp decline in all populations of exploited species, such as whales and seals. Commercial hunting lead to the extinction of Steller's sea cow and the Caribbean monk seal. [36] [37] After commercial hunting ended, some species, such as the gray whale and northern elephant seal, [38] [39] have rebounded in numbers, however the northern elephant seal has a genetic bottleneck; [39] conversely, other species, such as the North Atlantic right whale, are critically endangered. [40] Other than hunting, marine mammals, dolphins especially, can be killed as bycatch from fisheries, where they become entangled in fixed netting and drown or starve. [41] Increased ocean traffic causes collisions between fast ocean vessels and large marine mammals. [42] Habitat degradation also threatens marine mammals and their ability to find and catch food. Noise pollution, for example, may adversely affect echolocating mammals, [43] and the ongoing effects of global warming degrades arctic environments. [44]

Adaptations

Mammals evolved on land, so all aquatic and semiaquatic mammals have brought many terrestrial adaptations into the waters. They do not breathe underwater as fish do, so their respiratory systems had to protect the body from the surrounding water; valvular nostrils and an intranarial larynx exclude water while breathing and swallowing. To navigate and detect prey in murky and turbid waters, aquatic mammals have developed a variety of sensory organs: for example, manatees have elongated and highly sensitive whiskers which are used to detect food and other vegetation directly front of them, [45] and toothed whales have evolved echolocation. [27]

Aquatic mammals also display a variety of locomotion styles. Cetaceans excel in streamlined body shape and the up-and-down movements of their flukes make them fast swimmers; the tucuxi, for example, can reach speeds of 14 miles per hour (23 km/h). [46] The considerably slower sirenians can also propel themselves with their fluke, but they can also walk on the bottom with their forelimbs. [47] The earless seals (Phocidae) swim by moving their hind-flippers and lower body from side to side, while their fore-flippers are mainly used for steering. [27] They are clumsy on land, and move on land by lunging, bouncing and wiggling while their fore-flippers keep them balanced; [29] when confronted with predators, they retreat to the water as freshwater phocids have no aquatic predators. [48]

The pygmy hippopotamus has four weight-bearing limbs, and can walk on land like a fully terrestrial mammal. Pygmy hippopotamus pair.jpg
The pygmy hippopotamus has four weight-bearing limbs, and can walk on land like a fully terrestrial mammal.

Some aquatic mammals have retained four weight-bearing limbs (e.g. hippopotamuses, beavers, otters, muskrats) and can walk on land like fully terrestrial mammals. The long and thin legs of a moose limit exposure to and friction from water in contrast to hippopotamuses who keep most of their body submerged and have short and thick legs. The semiaquatic pygmy hippopotamus can walk quickly on a muddy underwater surface thanks to robust muscles and because all toes are weight-bearing. Some aquatic mammals with flippers (e.g. seals) are amphibious and regularly leave the water, sometimes for extended periods, and maneuver on land by undulating their bodies to move on land, similar to the up-and-down body motion used underwater by fully aquatic mammals (e.g. dolphins and manatees). [27]

Beavers, muskrats, otters, and capybara have fur, one of the defining mammalian features, that is long, oily, and waterproof in order to trap air to provide insulation. [49] In contrast, other aquatic mammals, such as dolphins, manatees, seals, and hippopotamuses, have lost their fur in favor of a thick and dense epidermis, and a thickened fat layer (blubber) in response to hydrodynamic requirements. [27]

Wading and bottom-feeding animals (e.g. moose and manatee) need to be heavier than water in order to keep contact with the floor or to stay submerged, surface-living animals (e.g. otters) need the opposite, and free-swimming animals living in open waters (e.g. dolphins) need to be neutrally buoyant in order to be able to swim up and down the water column. Typically, thick and dense bone is found in bottom feeders and low bone density is associated with mammals living in deep water. [27]

The shape and function of the eyes in aquatic animals are dependent on water depth and light exposure: limited light exposure results in a retina similar to that of nocturnal terrestrial mammals. Additionally, cetaceans have two areas of high ganglion cell concentration ("best-vision areas"), where other aquatic mammals (e.g. seals, manatees, otters) only have one. [27]

Among non-placental mammals, which cannot give birth to fully developed young, [50] some adjustments have been made for an aquatic lifestyle. The yapok has a backwards-facing pouch which seals off completely when the animal is underwater, while the platypus deposits its young on a burrow on land.

Ecology

Keystone species

Beaver dams restrict water flow, creating a pond. BeaverDam 8409.jpg
Beaver dams restrict water flow, creating a pond.

Beaver ponds have a profound effect on the surrounding ecosystem. Their first and foremost ecological function is as a reservoir for times of drought, and prevent drying of riverbeds. In the event of a flood, beaver ponds slow down water-flow which reduces erosion on the surrounding soil. [51] Beaver dams hold sediment, which reduces turbidity and thereby improving overall water quality downstream. This supplies other animals with cleaner drinking water and prevents degradation of spawning grounds for fish. [52] [53] However, the slower water speed and lack of shade from trees (that have since been cut down to construct the dam), results in the overall temperature increasing. [51] They also house predatory zooplankton which help break down detritus and control algae populations. [52]

Diet

Beavers are herbivores, and prefer the wood of quaking aspen, cottonwood, willow, alder, birch, maple and cherry trees. They also eat sedges, pondweed, and water lilies. [54] Beavers do not hibernate, but rather they store sticks and logs in a pile in their ponds, eating the underbark. The dams they build flood areas of surrounding forest, giving the beaver safe access to an important food supply, which is the leaves, buds, and inner bark of growing trees. They prefer aspen and poplar, but will also take birch, maple, willow, alder, black cherry, red oak, beech, ash, hornbeam and occasionally pine and spruce. [55] They will also eat cattails, water lilies and other aquatic vegetation, especially in the early spring. [56]

Indian rhinoceros are grazers. Their diets consist almost entirely of grasses, but they also eat leaves, branches of shrubs and trees, fruits, and submerged and floating aquatic plants. They feed in the mornings and evenings. They use their prehensile lips to grasp grass stems, bend the stem down, bite off the top, and then eat the grass. They tackle very tall grasses or saplings by walking over the plant, with legs on both sides and using the weight of their bodies to push the end of the plant down to the level of the mouth. [57]

Manatees make seasonal movements synchronized with the flood regime of the Amazon Basin. They are found in flooded forests and meadows during the flood season when food is abundant, and move to deep lakes during the dry season. [58] The Amazonian manatee has the smallest degree of rostral deflection (25° to 41°) among sirenians, an adaptation to feed closer to the water surface. [59]

A moose's diet often depends on its location, but they seem to prefer the new growths from deciduous trees with a high sugar content, such as white birch, trembling aspen and striped maple, among many others. [60] They also eat many aquatic plants such as waterlily and water milfoil. [61] To reach high branches, a moose may bend small saplings down, using its prehensile lip, mouth or body. For larger trees a moose may stand erect and walk upright on its hind legs, allowing it to reach plants 14.0 feet (4.26 m) off the ground. [62] [63] Moose are excellent swimmers and are known to wade into water to eat aquatic plants. Moose are thus attracted to marshes and river banks during warmer months as both provide suitable vegetation to eat and water to bathe in. Moose have been known to dive underwater to reach plants on lake bottoms, and the complex snout may assist the moose in this type of feeding. Moose are the only deer that are capable of feeding underwater. [64]

A moose in Siberia feeding on aquatic plants Wading moose.jpg
A moose in Siberia feeding on aquatic plants

Hippopotamuses leave the water at dusk and travel inland, sometimes up to 10 km (6 mi), [65] to graze on short grasses, their main source of food. They spend four to five hours grazing and can consume 68 kg (150 lb) of grass each night. [66] Like almost any herbivore, they consume other plants if presented with them, but their diet consists almost entirely of grass, with only minimal consumption of aquatic plants. [67] The pygmy hippopotamus emerges from the water at dusk to feed. It relies on game trails to travel through dense forest vegetation. It marks trails by vigorously waving its tail while defecating to further spread its feces. The pygmy hippo spends about six hours a day foraging for food, and they do not eat aquatic vegetation to a significant extent and rarely eat grass because it is uncommon in the thick forests they inhabit. The bulk of a pygmy hippo's diet consists of ferns, broad-leaved plants and fruits that have fallen to the forest floor. The wide variety of plants pygmy hippos have been observed eating suggests that they will eat any plants available. This diet is of higher quality than that of the common hippopotamus. [68] [69]

The Amazon river dolphin has the most diverse diet among cetaceans, consisting of at least 53 species of fish. They mainly feed on croakers, cichlids, tetras, and piranhas, but they may also target freshwater crabs and river turtles. [70] South Asian river dolphins mainly eat fish (such as carp, catfish, and freshwater sharks) and invertebrates, mainly prawns. [71]

Generally, all aquatic desmans, shrews, and voles make quick dives and catch small fish and invertebrates. The giant otter shrew, for example, makes quick dives that last for seconds and grabs small crabs (usually no bigger than 2.8 inches (7 cm) across). [72] The Lutrine opossum is the most carnivorous opossum, usually consuming small birds, rodents, and invertebrates. [73] Water voles mainly eat grass and plants near the water and at times, they will also consume fruits, bulbs, twigs, buds, and roots. However, a population of water voles living in Wiltshire and Lincolnshire, England have started eating frogs' legs and discarding the bodies. [74]

Interactions with humans

Exploitation

A beaver pelt in the Fur Trade Museum Fur trade museum beaver pelt.jpg
A beaver pelt in the Fur Trade Museum

Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts. The pelts were called castor gras in French and "coat beaver" in English, and were soon recognized by the newly developed felt-hat making industry as particularly useful for felting. Some historians, seeking to explain the term castor gras, have assumed that coat beaver was rich in human oils from having been worn so long (much of the top-hair was worn away through usage, exposing the valuable under-wool), and that this is what made it attractive to the hatters. This seems unlikely, since grease interferes with the felting of wool, rather than enhancing it. [75] By the 1580s, beaver "wool" was the major starting material of the French felt-hatters. [76] Hat makers began to use it in England soon after, particularly after Huguenot refugees brought their skills and tastes with them from France. [77]

Sport hunting of the Indian rhinoceros became common in the late 1800s and early 1900s. [78] Indian rhinos were hunted relentlessly and persistently. Reports from the middle of the 19th century claim that some British military officers in Assam individually shot more than 200 rhinos. By 1908, the population in Kaziranga had decreased to around 12 individuals. [79] In the early 1900s, the species had declined to near extinction. [78] Poaching for rhinoceros horn became the single most important reason for the decline of the Indian rhino after conservation measures were put in place from the beginning of the 20th century, when legal hunting ended. From 1980 to 1993, 692 rhinos were poached in India. In India's Laokhowa Wildlife Sanctuary, 41 rhinos were killed in 1983, virtually the entire population of the sanctuary. [80] By the mid-1990s, poaching had rendered the species extinct there. [81] In 1950, Chitwan’s forest and grasslands extended over more than 2,600 km2 (1,000 sq mi) and were home to about 800 rhinos. When poor farmers from the mid-hills moved to the Chitwan Valley in search of arable land, the area was subsequently opened for settlement, and poaching of wildlife became rampant. The Chitwan population has repeatedly been jeopardized by poaching; in 2002 alone, poachers killed 37 animals to saw off and sell their valuable horns. [82]

Otters have been hunted for their pelts since at least the 1700s. There has been a long history of otter pelts being worn around the world. In China it was standard for the royalty to wear robes made from them. People that were financially high in status also wore them. [83] Otters have also been hunted using dogs, specifically the otterhound. [84] In modern times, TRAFFIC, a joint program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reported that otters are at serious risk in Southeast Asia and have disappeared from parts of their former range. This decline in populations is due to hunting to supply the demand for skins. [85]

Habitat degradation

The Baykalsk Pulp and Paper Mill was a major producer of industrial waste for Lake Baikal. Bajkal'sk paper.jpg
The Baykalsk Pulp and Paper Mill was a major producer of industrial waste for Lake Baikal.

One problem at Lake Baikal is the introduction of pollutants into the ecosystem. Pesticides such as DDT and hexachlorocyclohexane, as well as industrial waste, mainly from the Baykalsk Pulp and Paper Mill, are thought to have been the cause of several disease epidemics among Baikal seal populations. [86] The chemicals are speculated to concentrate up the food chain and weaken the Baikal seal's immune system, making them susceptible to diseases such as canine distemper and the plague, which was the cause of a serious Baikal seal epidemic that resulted in the deaths of thousands of animals in 1997 and 1999. Baikal seal pups have higher levels of DDT and PCB than known in any other population of European or Arctic earless seal. [86]

In the 1940s, beavers were brought from Canada to the island of Tierra Del Fuego in southern Chile and Argentina, for commercial fur production. However, the project failed and the beavers, ten pairs, were released into the wild. Having no natural predators in their new environment, they quickly spread throughout the island, and to other islands in the region, reaching a number of 100,000 individuals within just 50 years. They are now considered a serious invasive species in the region, due to their massive destruction of forest trees, and efforts are being made for their eradication. [87]

In some European countries, such as Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, the muskrat is considered an invasive pest, as its burrowing damages the dikes and levees on which these low-lying countries depend for protection from flooding. In those countries, it is trapped, poisoned, and hunted to attempt to keep the population down. Muskrats also eat corn and other farm and garden crops growing near water bodies. [88]

Dead trees as a result of the construction of a beaver dam in Tierra del Fuego Beaver dam in Tierra del Fuego.jpg
Dead trees as a result of the construction of a beaver dam in Tierra del Fuego

Urban and agricultural development, increased damming, and increased use of hydroelectric power in rivers in countries such as Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are threats to the African manatee's habitat and life, and thick congestion of boats in waterways may cause them to have a deadly run-in with the vessels. However, even natural occurrences, such as droughts and tidal changes, often strand manatees in an unsuitable habitat. Some are killed accidentally by fishing trawls and nets intended for catching sharks. [89] The Amazonian manatee is at risk from pollution, accidental drowning in commercial fishing nets, and the degradation of vegetation by soil erosion resulting from deforestation. [58] Additionally, the indiscriminate release of mercury in mining activities threatens the entire aquatic ecosystem of the Amazon Basin. [58]

As China developed economically, pressure on the Chinese river dolphin grew significantly. [90] Industrial and residential waste flowed into the Yangtze. The riverbed was dredged and reinforced with concrete in many locations. Ship traffic multiplied, boats grew in size, and fishermen employed wider and more lethal nets. Noise pollution caused the nearly blind animal to collide with propellers. Stocks of the dolphin's prey declined drastically in the late 20th century, with some fish populations declining to one thousandth of their pre-industrial levels. [91] In the 1950s, the population was estimated at 6,000 animals, [92] but declined rapidly over the subsequent five decades. Only a few hundred were left by 1970. Then the number dropped down to 400 by the 1980s and then to 13 in 1997 when a full-fledged search was conducted. On 13 December 2006, the baiji was declared functionally extinct, after a 45-day search by leading experts in the field failed to find a single specimen. The last verified sighting was in 2004. [93]

As food

Moose are hunted as a game species in many of the countries where they are found. While the flesh has protein levels similar to those of other comparable red meats (e.g. beef, deer and elk), it has a low fat content, and the fat that is present consists of a higher proportion of polyunsaturated fats rather than saturated fats. [94]

...like tender beef, with perhaps more flavour; sometimes like veal”

—  Henry David Thoreau of The Maine Woods describing the taste of moose meat

Cadmium levels are high in moose liver and kidneys, with the result that consumption of these organs from moose more than one year old is prohibited in Finland. [95] Cadmium intake has been found to be elevated amongst all consumers of moose meat, though the meat was found to contribute only slightly to the daily cadmium intake. However the consumption of moose liver or kidneys significantly increased cadmium intake, with the study revealing that heavy consumers of moose organs have a relatively narrow safety margin below the levels which would probably cause adverse health effects. [96]

In the 17th century, based on a question raised by the Bishop of Quebec, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that the beaver was a fish (beaver flesh was a part of the indigenous peoples' diet, prior to the Europeans' arrival [97] ) for purposes of dietary law. Therefore, the general prohibition on the consumption of meat on Fridays did not apply to beaver meat. [97] This is similar to the Church's classification of other semiaquatic rodents, such as the capybara and muskrat. [98] [99]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Cetacea is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel themselves through the water with powerful up-and-down movement of their tail which ends in a paddle-like fluke, using their flipper-shaped forelimbs to maneuver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whale</span> Informal group of large marine mammals

Whales(Balaena) are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises. Dolphins and porpoises may be considered whales from a formal, cladistic perspective. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest non-cetacean living relatives are the hippopotamuses, from which they and other cetaceans diverged about 54 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae, Balaenidae, Cetotheriidae, and Eschrichtiidae. Odontocetes include the Monodontidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae, and Ziphiidae, as well as the six families of dolphins and porpoises which are not considered whales in the informal sense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artiodactyl</span> Order of mammals

Artiodactyls are mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla. Typically, they are ungulates which bear weight equally on two of their five toes: the third and fourth, often in the form of a hoof. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, most perissodactyls bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two is that many artiodactyls digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as perissodactyls do. The advent of molecular biology, along with new fossil discoveries, found that cetaceans fall within this taxonomic branch, being most closely related to hippopotamuses. Some modern taxonomists thus apply the name Cetartiodactyla to this group, while others opt to include cetaceans within the existing name of Artiodactyla. Some researchers use "even-toed ungulates" to exclude cetaceans and only include terrestrial artiodactyls, making the term paraphyletic in nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine mammal</span> Mammals that rely on marine environments for feeding

Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquatic animal</span> Animal that lives in water for most or all of its lifetime

An aquatic animal is any animal, whether vertebrate or invertebrate, that lives in water for all or most of its lifetime. Many insects such as mosquitoes, mayflies, dragonflies and caddisflies have aquatic larvae, with winged adults. Aquatic animals may breathe air or extract oxygen from water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through the skin. Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic (water) or terrestrial (land). This designation is polyphyletic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toothed whale</span> Parvorder of cetaceans

The toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. 73 species of toothed whales are described. They are one of two living groups of cetaceans, the other being the baleen whales (Mysticeti), which have baleen instead of teeth. The two groups are thought to have diverged around 34 million years ago (mya).

Several groups of tetrapods have undergone secondary aquatic adaptation, an evolutionary transition from being purely terrestrial to living at least part of the time in water. These animals are called "secondarily aquatic" because although their ancestors lived on land for hundreds of millions of years, they all originally descended from aquatic animals. These ancestral tetrapods had never left the water, and were thus primarily aquatic, like modern fishes. Secondary aquatic adaptations tend to develop in early speciation as the animal ventures into water in order to find available food. As successive generations spend more time in the water, natural selection causes the acquisition of more adaptations. Animals of later generations may spend most their life in the water, coming ashore for mating. Finally, fully adapted animals may take to mating and birthing in water or ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolution of cetaceans</span>

The evolution of cetaceans is thought to have begun in the Indian subcontinent from even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla) 50 million years ago (mya) and to have proceeded over a period of at least 15 million years. Cetaceans are fully aquatic marine mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla and branched off from other artiodactyls around 50 mya. Cetaceans are thought to have evolved during the Eocene, the second epoch of the present-extending Cenozoic Era. Molecular and morphological analyses suggest Cetacea share a relatively recent closest common ancestor with hippopotami and that they are sister groups. Being mammals, they surface to breathe air; they have 5 finger bones (even-toed) in their fins; they nurse their young; and, despite their fully aquatic life style, they retain many skeletal features from their terrestrial ancestors. Research conducted in the late 1970s in Pakistan revealed several stages in the transition of cetaceans from land to sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flipper (anatomy)</span> Flattened limb adapted for propulsion and maneuvering in water

A flipper is a broad, flattened limb adapted for aquatic locomotion. It refers to the fully webbed, swimming appendages of aquatic vertebrates that are not fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mammal classification</span> Taxonomy of mammals

Mammalia is a class of animal within the phylum Chordata. Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus initially defined the class. No classification system is universally accepted; McKenna & Bell (1997) and Wilson & Reader (2005) provide useful recent compendiums. Many earlier ideas from Linnaeus et al. have been completely abandoned by modern taxonomists, among these are the idea that bats are related to birds or that humans represent a group outside of other living things. Competing ideas about the relationships of mammal orders do persist and are currently in development. Most significantly in recent years, cladistic thinking has led to an effort to ensure that all taxonomic designations represent monophyletic groups. The field has also seen a recent surge in interest and modification due to the results of molecular phylogenetics.

<i>Pakicetus</i> Genus of ancient whales

Pakicetus is an extinct genus of amphibious cetacean of the family Pakicetidae, which was endemic to Pakistan during the Ypresian period, about 50 million years ago. It was a wolf-like animal, about 1 metre to 2 metres long, and lived in and around water where it ate fish and other small animals. The vast majority of paleontologists regard it as the most basal whale, representing a transitional stage between land mammals and whales. It belongs to the even-toed ungulates with the closest living non-cetacean relative being the hippopotamus.

The reniculate kidney is a multilobed kidney found in marine and aquatic mammals such as pinnipeds and cetaceans but absent in terrestrial mammals except bears. Kidneys of this morphology have increased surface area for removing toxins from the body more efficiently than a non-lobed kidney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whippomorpha</span> Suborder of mammals

Whippomorpha or Cetancodonta is a group of artiodactyls that contains all living cetaceans and hippopotamuses. All Whippomorphs are descendants of the last common ancestor of Hippopotamus amphibius and Tursiops truncatus. This makes it a crown group. Whippomorpha is a suborder within the order Artiodactyla. The placement of Whippomorpha within Artiodactyla is a matter of some contention, as hippopotamuses were previously considered to be more closely related to Suidae (pigs) and Tayassuidae (peccaries). Most contemporary scientific phylogenetic and morphological research studies link hippopotamuses with cetaceans, and genetic evidence has overwhelmingly supported an evolutionary relationship between Hippopotamidae and Cetacea. Modern Whippomorphs all share a number of behavioural and physiological traits; such as a dense layer of subcutaneous fat and largely hairless bodies. They exhibit amphibious and aquatic behaviors and possess similar auditory structures.

Interdigital webbing is the presence of membranes of skin between the digits. Normally in mammals, webbing is present in the embryo but resorbed later in development, but in various mammal species it occasionally persists in adulthood. In humans, it can be found in those suffering from LEOPARD syndrome and from Aarskog–Scott syndrome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semiaquatic</span> Spends part of their time in water, or grows partially submerged in water

In biology, semiaquatic refers to various macroorganisms that live regularly in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. When referring to animals, the term describes those that actively spend part of their daily time in water, or land animals that have spent at least one life stages in aquatic environments. When referring to plants, the term describes land plants whose roots have adapted well to tolerate regular, prolonged submersion in water, as well as emergent and (occasionally) floating-leaved aquatic plants that are only partially immersed in water.

The physiology of underwater diving is the physiological adaptations to diving of air-breathing vertebrates that have returned to the ocean from terrestrial lineages. They are a diverse group that include sea snakes, sea turtles, the marine iguana, saltwater crocodiles, penguins, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sea otters, manatees and dugongs. All known diving vertebrates dive to feed, and the extent of the diving in terms of depth and duration are influenced by feeding strategies, but also, in some cases, with predator avoidance. Diving behaviour is inextricably linked with the physiological adaptations for diving and often the behaviour leads to an investigation of the physiology that makes the behaviour possible, so they are considered together where possible. Most diving vertebrates make relatively short shallow dives. Sea snakes, crocodiles, and marine iguanas only dive in inshore waters and seldom dive deeper than 10 meters. Some of these groups can make much deeper and longer dives. Emperor penguins regularly dive to depths of 400 to 500 meters for 4 to 5 minutes, often dive for 8 to 12 minutes, and have a maximum endurance of about 22 minutes. Elephant seals stay at sea for between 2 and 8 months and dive continuously, spending 90% of their time underwater and averaging 20 minutes per dive with less than 3 minutes at the surface between dives. Their maximum dive duration is about 2 hours and they routinely feed at depths between 300 and 600 meters, though they can exceed depths of 1,600 meters. Beaked whales have been found to routinely dive to forage at depths between 835 and 1,070 meters, and remain submerged for about 50 minutes. Their maximum recorded depth is 1,888 meters, and the maximum duration is 85 minutes.

Cetaceans form an infra-order of marine mammals. In 2020, approximately 86 species of cetaceans had been identified worldwide. Among these species, at least 35 have been sighted in the wider Caribbean region with very widespread distribution and density variations between areas. Caribbean waters are a preferred breeding site for several species of mysticeti, who live further north the rest of the year. The tucuxi and the boto live at the southern periphery of the Caribbean region in the freshwaters of the Amazon river and surrounding drainage basins.

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