Geneticists recommend designating isolated dolphin population as 'endangered'
Bottlenose dolphins in Panama's Bocas Del Toro Archipelago should be designated as endangered say the authors of a new study. Biologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute discovered that the roughly 80 dolphins in the archipelago do not interbreed with other Caribbean bottlenose dolphins. Their low numbers jeopardize their long-term survival, which is threatened by increasing local boat traffic that killed at least seven dolphins in 2012.
Worldwide, the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is considered of "least concern" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. But this belies the risk faced by the Bocas dolphin population, which the study suggests was founded by a small dolphin family a few thousand years ago. In addition, the dolphins of Bocas also appear to have no meaningful exchange with the nearest permanent dolphin population, only 35 kilometers (22 miles) away in Costa Rica. These open-water dolphins seem to steer clear of the murky green waters around the archipelago.
Researchers concluded that the small -- and possibly decreasing -- Bocas dolphin population should be of great conservation concern. "
Our results indicate that the population of dolphins in Bocas Del Toro is genetically isolated from other populations in the Caribbean, and given the high impact of boat traffic on the animals, we suggest that its conservation status be changed, at least at a local level," said visiting Smithsonian scientist and the study's lead author Dalia C. Barragán-Barrera, from Colombia's Universidad de los Andes. "Conservation priorities are largely dependent on the IUCN conservation status of the species." Continue reading...
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