Respiratory pattern of captive Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis)

Abstract

Cetacean respiration usually happen in bouts. The most widely applied quantitative method used to analyze the structure of these bouts is the log e -survivorship analysis, based on the assumption that the respiratory intervals are distributed as negative exponentials. However, for the data collected from three captive Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis), we failed to obtain a convergent result with the application of log esurvivorship analysis. However, the two-Gaussian model, which was recently proposed to analyze the feeding behavior of cows, was successfully fitted to the data. According to the fitting results, the overall respiratory pattern of the captive Yangtze finless porpoises can be described as a dive with a mean duration of around 30-40 s, followed by two or three ventilations with a mean interval of approximately 9 s. The average intra-bout intervals during both active and inactive periods are constant at 7.7-9.9 s for all individuals. However, when shifting from active to inactive states, the adult male and female decrease their mean numbers of respirations per bout and average length of inter-bout respiratory intervals, while the estimates of both parameters increase for the juvenile female. It was pointed out that the two-Gaussian model might be more adequate for cetacean respiratory-bout structure analyses than the log e -survivorship technique.

Diurnal changes of behavior and respiration of Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis) in captivity

“…During the observations, the respiratory intervals (RI, the time interval between a respiration and its preceding one) and eight behavioral categories, i.e., aerial display and fast swimming, begging for fish, playing, sexual behavior, nonsexual socializing, resting, rubbing, and miscellaneous, following the ethogram constructed from observations carried out before this study [Xiao and Wang, 2005; see Appendix], were recorded for the focal animal. The RIs were recorded with a selfdeveloped portable event recorder based on a single chip.…”

A description of commonly observed behaviors for the kori bustard (Ardeotis kori)

“…In addition to providing standardized definitions of behaviors for a species, which help prevent "drift" during the course of a study (Martin and Bateson 2001) and facilitate further research on a species' behavior, ethograms allow the comparison of behavior between related species (Xiao and Wang 2005) Many of the behaviors we describe are also reported for other bustard species. Resting behaviors appear similar in kori bustards, houbara bustards {Chlamyd-otis undulata macqueenii, Launay and Paillât 1990), great bustards (Hellmich 1987) and black korhaans {Eupodotis afraoides, de Swardt 1992).…”

Contextual impacts on individual and synchronous breathing rate variations in three captive odontocete groups

“…They are classified as critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of endangered species (IUCN, 2013). Breathing patterns have rarely been quantitatively assessed in this species (Xiao & Wang, 2006), and the impact of the context or displayed behavior has never been evaluated. Unlike YFPs, East Asian finless porpoises ( Neophocaena asiaeorientalis sunameri , EAFPs) are found in marine environments and are commonly kept in captivity in Asia (Zhang et al, 2012).…”