Hybridization in bottlenose dolphins—A case study of Tursiops aduncus × T. truncatus hybrids and successful backcross hybridization events

Gridley, T.; Elwen, S.H.; Harris, G.; Moore, D.M.; Hoelzel, A.R.; Lampen, F.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0201722

Hybridization in bottlenose dolphins—A case study of Tursiops aduncus × T. truncatus hybrids and successful backcross hybridization events

Gridley, T.; Elwen, S.H.; Harris, G.; Moore, D.M.; Hoelzel, A.R.; Lampen, F.

Authors

T. Gridley

S.H. Elwen

G. Harris

D.M. Moore

Professor Rus Hoelzel a.r.hoelzel@durham.ac.uk
Professor

F. Lampen

Abstract

The bottlenose dolphin, genus Tursiops is one of the best studied of all the Cetacea with a minimum of two species widely recognised. Common bottlenose dolphins (T. truncatus), are the cetacean species most frequently held in captivity and are known to hybridize with species from at least 6 different genera. In this study, we document several intra-generic hybridization events between T. truncatus and T. aduncus held in captivity. We demonstrate that the F1 hybrids are fertile and can backcross producing apparently healthy offspring, thereby showing introgressive inter-specific hybridization within the genus. We document that female F1 hybrids can reach sexual maturity at 4 yr and 3 mo of age, and can become pregnant and give birth before being fully weaned. The information presented has implications for understanding hybrid reticulation among cetacean species and practical implications for captive facilities housing either Tursiops species or hybrids thereof.

Citation

Gridley, T., Elwen, S., Harris, G., Moore, D., Hoelzel, A., & Lampen, F. (2018). Hybridization in bottlenose dolphins—A case study of Tursiops aduncus × T. truncatus hybrids and successful backcross hybridization events. PLoS ONE, 13(9), Article e0201722. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201722

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 20, 2018
Online Publication Date	Sep 12, 2018
Publication Date	Sep 12, 2018
Deposit Date	Sep 20, 2018
Publicly Available Date	Sep 20, 2018
Journal	PLoS ONE
Publisher	Public Library of Science
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	13
Issue	9
Article Number	e0201722
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201722

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Copyright Statement
© 2018 Gridley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.