Infanticide in a mammal-eating killer whale population.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Towers JR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5861072 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Infanticide in a mammal-eating killer whale population.
Towers Jared R JR Hallé Muriel J MJ Symonds Helena K HK Sutton Gary J GJ Morton Alexandra B AB Spong Paul P Borrowman James P JP Ford John K B JKB
Scientific reports 20180320 1
Infanticide can be an extreme result of sexual conflict that drives selection in species in which it occurs. It is a rarely observed behaviour but some evidence for its occurrence in cetaceans exists in three species of dolphin. Here we describe observations of an adult male killer whale (Orcinus orca) and his post-reproductive mother killing a neonate belonging to an unrelated female from the same population in the North Pacific. This is the first account of infanticide reported in killer whale ...[more]
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