Kate Charlton (PhD candidate) Professor Steve W. McKechnie, Dr Andrea Taylor

To aid conservation management and to determine the species status of this potential new dolphin taxa we need to increase our knowledge of its range, population and breeding structure. During 2007, I continued to biopsy the ‘inshore’ bottlenose dolphins from the two main resident populations across Victoria, Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes. Biopsy samples collected from these populations, along with samples from dead stranded animals ranging across multiple cetacean species, are continued to be processed and results analysed using mitochondrial DNA sequences from the control region and cytochrome b, and 12 microsatellite markers. Variation across intron regions of chromosomal genes is also being investigated.  I have continued to attend all dolphin strandings across coastal Victoria and conducted post-mortems on these animals. External morphometrics, skulls and tissue samples have been collected from each stranding. The skulls have been deposited into the Melbourne Museum and I have subsequently taken skull morphometric data. The skull data has been analysed for association with mtDNA control region haplotypes. The results show a clear clustering that separates the new dolphin taxa, from the ‘offshore’ common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus. The separation of the two ‘types’ using both genetic and osteology data re-enforces the theory that the ‘inshore’ bottlenose dolphin are a new dolphin taxa that is restricted to southern Australian waters.

This study has collaborations with the Dolphin Research Institute, Melbourne and Tasmanian Museums, Government Institutions (Parks Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment, and Department of Primary Industry and Water) and Zoos Victoria.