Table l. — Blood chemistry analyses from two groups of the false killer wha\e, Pseudorca crassidens, stranded in Florida compared 

 with data for the bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, and the Pacific whitesided dolphin, Lagenorhynchus ohliquidens. 



'Animals from Loggerhead Key; each animal sampled once 



^The four females held at Sea World; each animal sampled several times. 



^Data from Ridgway et al, (1970), 



•■Numtjer of determinations made 



5Values calculated using mean values for hematocrit, hemoglobin and red cell count. 



'Significant difference between males and females, f-test. 0.01 level. 



cm female consumed an average (±SD) of 20 ±7.6 

 kg of mackerel and herring/day, in a ratio of 1.5:1, 

 from 25 July through 9 August. Food consumption 

 decreased significantly on 10 August and the ani- 

 mal died on 13 August. Similarly, the 297 cm 

 female consumed 15.3 ±4.0 kg of mackerel and 

 herring (2.2:1) between 24 July and 3 August. 

 Food consumption dropped to 1.8 kg on 4 August, 

 rose to 18.6 kg on 8 August when smelt was added 

 to the diet, and then decreased to 5.4 kg on 13 

 August. Overall food consumption between 24 

 July and 13 August was 11.7 ±5.7 kg/day. The 

 animal died on 14 August. The 358 cm female 

 consumed 15.1±8.5 kg of mackerel and herring/ 

 day (1.2:1) between 24 July and 7 August. Food 

 consumption decreased on 4 August and remained 

 stable through 7 August {x = 9.0 ±2.5 kg/day). 

 Consumption between 24 July and 3 August was 

 17.1 ±8.9 kg/day. Smelt was introduced on 8 Au- 

 gust in place of mackerel and total consumption 

 was 22.7 kg. Squid was also added on 9 August. 

 The animal died on 10 August. The 475 cm female 



had an erratic food consumption (mackerel and 

 herring, 19.4 ±16.2 kg/day) between 24 July and 

 29 July when it died. The individual blood chemis- 

 try analyses for these four animals reflected their 

 deteriorating condition (Odell et al. see footnote 8) 

 and their combined values were significantly 

 different from the Loggerhead Key animals 

 (Table 1). 



Relationships Among Strandings 



It is clear, based on photographs, that some of 

 the false killer whales that left Pine Island Sound 

 were the same individuals that stranded on 

 Loggerhead Key. Low altitude (helicopter) aerial 

 photographs were taken of the animals leaving 

 Captiva Pass (Larson see footnote 3). Comparison 

 of these photographs with photographs of dorsal 

 fins of the Tortugas animals provided positive 

 identification of several individuals. Dorsal fin 

 shapes have been used to identify specific indi- 

 vidual dolphins over periods of several months 



175 



