New research has found Northern Australia's false killer whales are a distinct species not found anywhere else, but scientists are worried the animals are facing critical threats.
abc.net.au/news/australian-false-killer-whales-confirmed-as-separate-species/101790316Working off Australia's remote northern coastline, Charles Darwin University marine scientist Carol Palmer has got to know false killer whales as one of the country's most charismatic dolphins.
Now, working with Indigenous ranger groups from the Northern Territory's Cobourg Peninsula to the Kimberley, she has gathered enough DNA samples to prove that Northern Australia's false killer whales are a distinct endemic species not found anywhere else. "To use a pole or a crossbow to get just a small skin sample, it's really really easy, because they're coming over to us," she said."We now know we have a unique coastal population of false killer whales, and that means we are now at the point where we can actually try to update their conservation status.
Dr Palmer said she hoped her research would encourage the federal, state and territory governments to better protect the animals' habitats from the many threats that faced them."And any major underwater drilling and gas development in our oceans here, it's a real worry."Her team has been particularly dismayed by the amount of marine rubbish they have encountered during their research, much of it from Asia.
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