Ecology and Life History
Caught and stranded Hector’s dolphins have provided information on the life history and reproductive parameters of the species. The maximum observed age is 19 years for females and 20 years for males. However, a long term photo-ID project at Banks Peninsula has shown that individuals reach at least 23 years of age. Males attain sexual maturity between five and nine years of age, and females have their first calf between seven and nine years old. The calving interval is two to four years.
These life-history characteristics mean that Hector’s dolphins, like many other small cetaceans, have a low potential for population growth. Maximum population growth rate has been estimated to be 1.8-4.9% per year, although the lower end of this range is probably more realistic.
Read more about this topic: Hector's Dolphin
Famous quotes containing the words ecology, life and/or history:
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)
“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men’s existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history?”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)