Northern Giant Petrel?

[Fabian Schneider]

Hello,
I have photograph this dead bird in September 2007 near the Laguna José Ignacio in Uruguay. Is it a Northern Giant Petrel or just a Southern Giant Petrel with the color of the bill changed by the time after the death?
Thanks

Fabian Schneider

[tf1044]

Hi Fabian,

I would say Northern, looking at the color of the bill . All the ones I have seen were alive, so I don't really know if the color changes when they die.

Trev

[Alan Henry]

The bill certainly looks good for Northern Giant Petrel, I see no reason why the bill colour would change from green to reddish after death.


I have attached a picture of both Southern & Northern birds together with a white phased Southern.


Best regards

Alan

[Chris Benesh]

Hi Alan,

I checked out your blog and got caught up in your beaked whale images. So...

I decided to do a bit of searching around on the net as well as checking several cetacean references I've got. Your were in luck that the animal is an adult male with emergent teeth and some coloration evident on the beak. There were a couple of candidates that matched your specimen somewhat. I first narrowed the choices down to Andrew's Beaked Whale, Ginko-toothed Beaked Whale, and Blainville's Beaked Whale, with Andrew's and Ginko-toothed looking the closest.

Then I found this really cool and informative interactive ID key at this site (http://vertebrates.si.edu/mammals/beaked_whales/pages/ID_main.htm):

A run through the key established that your specimen is likely Andrew's Beaked Whale M. bowdoini. Factor in known distribution, and you've got a good fit. The maps show detailed stranding locales, and of all these candidates, only Andrew's has occurred in your part of the world.

This (http://www.beakedwhaleresource.com/index.html) was another useful site.

These (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/mecol/1998/00000007/00000006/art00003) might be some folks to get in contact with regarding analysis of your DNA samples. [notice too their comments that Andrew's BW is known only from some 20 strandings worldwide!]

Hope this helps!

Chris

[Alan Henry]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info.

The general feeling is that it is an adult male Andrew's Beaked Whale M. bowdoini

We have received a lot of help from cetacean experts from the United Kingdom, Australia & New Zealand.

The head is being collected this evening for safe keeping and DNA samples will be sent off for analysis in the near future.

I will start a new thread with more pictures on the mammal thread very soon

Cheers

Alan