McFee and Hopkins Murphy: Stiandings of Tuisiops liuncatti'i off Soutli Carolina 



261 



Given that 1993 vi'as an unusual year in the stranding 

 pattern, this year was excluded from the analysis. Specif- 

 ically, the number of strandings was found to be higher 

 in the spring than in other seasons (contrast analysis, 

 P=0.012). 



The majority of strandings occurred in the southern half 

 of the state, zones 2 (/!=67: 43.8%) and 3 (n=6h 39.9'7f). 

 Seasonally, in zone 1 (n=25), 72.0% of its strandings oc- 

 curred in fall and winter, whereas in zones 2 and 3, the 

 majority of their strandings occurred in spring and sum- 

 mer, 68.7% and 70.5%, respectively. Seventy-three percent 

 1 11 = 11) of the bottlenose dolphins that stranded in the 

 southern half of zone 1 did so between October to April. 

 The difference in seasonal patterns of strandings between 

 zones was significant (X" goodness-of-fit; P=0.003). 



Gender 



The total number of stranded bottlenose dolphins with 

 known sex was 115. The sex ratio for 1992-96 was 1.00:0.89, 

 females («=61) to males (n=54), not significantly different 

 from parity (X" test of association; P=0.979). A significant 

 decrease in the proportion of unknown gender occurred 

 during the period 1992-96 (X' test for trend; P=0.012) 

 because of an increase in the number of animals examined 

 in necropsy. 



Length classes 



The total number of stranded bottlenose dolphins with 

 known length was 138. Based on length-at-age data from 

 known bottlenose dolphins (Readetal., 1993) and stranded 

 bottlenose dolphin data from Texas (Fernandez and Hohn, 



45 



40 



35 



30 



25 



20 - 



15 



10 



5 







 Unknown 

 ID Females 



 Males 



_JL 



JX 



I II III IV V 



Length classes 



Figure 3 



The number of strandings for males, females, and for bottle- 

 nose dolphin of unknown sex in each length-class stratum 

 from 1992 to 1996 in South Carolina (class I=neonates; class 

 II<185 cm; class 111=186-200 cm; class IV=201-240 cm; 

 class V>240 cm). 



1998) the length data were stratified into five classes: 

 class I (neonates — defined as a newborn having a folded 

 dorsal fin or flukes or with umbilical remnants |or with 

 both physical features]); class II (<184 cm, young of the 

 year); class III (185-200 cm— calves); class IV (201-240 

 cm, mostly physically immature, especially females); and 

 class V (>240 cm, mostly mature) (Fig. 3). 



Males and females were distributed proportionately and 

 evenly across the length classes with the exception of two 

 classes: class III and class IV (Fig. 4). In class III, males 



