Conjoined whale twins

Conjoined 'Siamese' Gray 

Whale Twins Could Be First 

Ever

Huffington Post,

7 January, 2014

Images and footage of what could be the first documented discovery of conjoined gray whale calves have emerged.

The shots were posted to the Guerrero Negro Verde Facebook page on Sunday with the information that the carcasses had been found in Mexico's Laguna Ojo de Liebre, or Scammon’s Lagoon.

A translated statement reads: “Unfortunately, the specimen died. [Its] survival was very difficult.”

Guerrero Negro Verde

• Works at Guerrero Negro Verde

 · 1,432 followers

Registro único, el nacimiento de ballenas grises siamesas (gemelos cuyos cuerpos siguen unidos después del nacimiento) en Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Desafortunadamente el ejemplar murió, era difícil su sobrevivencia.

See translation

Outdoors blogger Pete Thomas points out a database search at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County does not reveal any previously published instances of conjoined gray whale twins – though they have reportedly occurred in species of fin, sei and minke whales.

He also cites Alisa Schulman-Janiger, an American Cetacean Society researcher as stating the twins were underdeveloped and had probably been prematurely born.

Footage of the discovery was posted to YouTube where some commenters speculated as to whether the birth defect was perhaps related to Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

Guerrero Negro Verde

• Works at Guerrero Negro Verde

 · 1,432 followers

Registro único, el nacimiento de ballenas grises siamesas (gemelos cuyos cuerpos siguen unidos después del nacimiento) en Laguna Ojo de Liebre. Desafortunadamente el ejemplar murió, era difícil su sobrevivencia.

See translation

The carcasses, which have reportedly been collected for study, are said to have measured 2.1m in length compared to the normal length of newborn gray whales which is between 3.6m and 4.8m.

Adult gray whales reach up to 14m in length and have recently returned from the brink of extinction, the Marine Mammal Centre writes. Current worldwide population levels are estimated to be around 26,000.

Pete Thomas Outdoors, Jan.6, 2014: Scientists find conjoined gray whale calves in Baja California lagoon; discovery could be a first[...] It might be the first documented case of conjoined twin gray whales. [...] A database search at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County did not reveal published instances of conjoined gray whale twins, or what might also be referred to as Siamese gray whale twins [...] Alisa Schulman-Janiger, an American Cetacean Society researcher, pointed out that the twins were underdeveloped and said that pointed to a premature birth. She also wondered about the fate of the mother. [...] They give birth during the southbound journey, or in the lagoons, and nurse their calves for several weeks before migrating back to the Bering and Chukchi seas. [...]

Agency: Dead Conjoined Baby Gray Whales found on West Coast of N. America — Could be first ever recorded — 2 heads and 2 tails, joined in middle

ENENews,

7 January, 2014

Presna Latina News Agency, Jan. 7, 2014: Fishermen of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur found a baby whale dead with two heads and two tails, which is now under guard of the Directorate General of Wildlife. According to the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) the finding occurred on the afternoon of Sunday [...] This is a Conjoined Baby Gray Whales, because there are the two bodies, two heads and two tails, joined by the ventral region, Bermudez told the newspaper El Universal. [...]

L.A. Times, Jan. 6, 2014: The number of gray whales spotted migrating south off the Southern California coast in December was double what it was compared with the same period last year [...] whale spotters in December counted 364 gray whales heading south to Baja California [...] More than 20,000 gray whales migrate each year from Arctic waters in the north to the shallow lagoons and bays of Baja California. [...]

NOAA Fisheries, October 17, 2012: [...] scientists were recently surprised to discover that some gray whales from a critically endangered population in Asia cross the Pacific every year to winter off the coast of North America. [...] The Eastern North Pacific population [...] migrates along the west coast of North America to Baja California [...] in 2010, researchers [...] tagged a male gray whale with a satellite transmitter near Sakhalin Island and then watched, surprised, as he made his way to the coast of Oregon. The next year, a tagged female made the same journey. [...] Were these two whales just a couple of rolling stones, or do gray whales commonly cross the Pacific? [...] [Dave Weller, a marine mammal biologist at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center] and his colleagues sequentially compared each of 181 photos of whales near Sakhalin Island with more than a thousand photos of whales off the coast of North America. They found ten matches. Because most of the whales that winter on the North American coast do not appear in the photo catalog, the number of matches turned up in this study is probably only a fraction of the number of gray whales that cross the Pacific. [...]