Northern Bottlenose Whales

Northern Bottlenose Whale Fast Facts

Scientific name: Hyperoodon ampullatus (roughly translates to "excessively toothed bottle/flask")
IUCN conservation status: Data deficient
Currently listed under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) in Canada, composed of two distinct sub populations: the Scotian Shelf and Labrador Davis Strait designated units.
One of two species of beaked whale in the genus Hyperoodon (the other is the southern bottlenose whale)
Sexually dimorphic, where mature males have large melons (foreheads) and two teeth that emerge from their bottom jaw.

The Whitehead Lab and Northern Bottlenose Whales

Since 1988, t he Whitehead Lab northern bottlenose whale research program has collected acoustic, visual, genetic and photographic data focused on the endangered Scotian Shelf population residing in the area of the Gully submarine canyon, a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the northwest Atlantic. Our long term research program has been acknowledged as contributing information vital to the conservation and management of the Gully MPA and northern bottlenose whales in Canada.

Current Projects

Dr. Dara Orbach (Postdoctoral Fellow): I am broadly interested in the behavioural patterns of cetaceans, which have not been well-documented for most species of beaked whales. The population of northern bottlenose whales in the Gully provide a unique opportunity to assess sex-specific behavioural and surface acoustic patterns because there is evident sexual dimorphism amongst adults and because animals are comparatively non-evasive of vessels. My research explores ecological and evolutionary selection pressures.

Laura Joan Feyrer (Ph.D. Student): My PhD research is examining the distribution, connectivity and persistence of northern bottlenose whale populations along the slope of the Canadian continental shelf in the northwest Atlantic. In 2016 we discovered a population of bottlenose whales off Newfoundland that has not yet been formally recognized. Given the pressures from anthropogenic threats in the Sackville Spur this is a potential conservation concern for bottlenose whales in Canada. To address this knowledge gap I am using multiple streams of evidence from habitat models, photo-identification studies, stable isotopes, genetics, fatty acids and trace elements to create a picture of population and habitat structure for the species.

Karolyn Long (Undergraduate Honours Student): I am analyzing video data from 2010 and 2011 of the northern bottlenose whale population on the Scotian Shelf to determine if there is the potential for leadership to occur. I am interested to see if certain factors, including group size, group formation and behavioural state, relate to whether leadership is observed.

Madison Stewart (Undergraduate Honours Student): Using a catalogue of photos from 1988 to 2017, I will be using photo ID of dorsal fins to estimate the population size of Northern bottlenose whales in the Scotian Shelf. By comparing to a smaller and newly discovered population of Northern bottlenose whales in Newfoundland, the project also has implications for population connectivity between the two sites.