Caption
World population graph of Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus).
Y-axis:
- Left axis shows world population estimate (the average is used when a range is given)
- Right axis shows the same values expressed as percentage of pre-whaling population
Data used
Based on data taken from animalinfo.org - Blue Whale and other sources.
(See below for expanded references)
Year
|
Global population
|
Reference
|
Used
|
Before whaling
|
About 275,000
|
(Kemf & Phillips 1994)
|
yes
|
1935
|
100,000
|
(Animal World 1972)
|
no
|
1930s
|
30,000 - 40,000
|
(IUCN 1966)
|
yes
|
1962
|
930 - 2790
|
(IUCN 1966)
|
yes
|
1964
|
650 - 2000
|
(Oryx 1964a)
|
yes
|
1970
|
600
|
(Animal World 1972)
|
no
|
Late 1970s
|
4000 - 4500
|
(Burton & Pearson 1987)
|
yes
|
1980
|
About 6500
|
(Nowak & Paradiso 1983)
|
yes
|
1990
|
2500 - 3000
|
(Klinowska 1991)
|
yes
|
1994
|
Probably under 5000
|
(Kemf & Phillips 1994)
|
yes
|
2002
|
5000
|
(Pop 2002)
|
no
|
Some data points were not used because I found them only after making the graph. Also (Animal World 1972) is a poor source, as it's an encyclopedia without citations.
References:
- Kemf & Phillips. 1994. Whales in the Wild. World Wildlife Fund, Gland, Switzerland.
- IUCN 1966 Red Data Book. Vol. 1 - Mammalia. International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Morges, Switzerland.
- Oryx 1964a. Whaling agreement hitch. Oryx 7:145.
- Burton & Pearson. 1987. Rare Mammals of the World. Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, MA, USA.
- Nowak & Paradiso. 1983. Walker's Mammals of the World, vols. 1 and 2. 4th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Klinowska, M. 1991. Dolphins, Porpoises and Whales of the World - The IUCN Red Data Book. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland.
- Pop 2002 = Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (2002) Assessment and Update Status Report on the Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus archive copy at the Wayback Machine Population size and trends, p5. (not used in this version of the graph)
- Animal World 1972 = Encyclopedia of the Animal World, 1972. p699 (not used in graph)
Notes
- Commercial exploitation of whales began in the 19th century.
- Average of estimates used rather than error bars.
- IUCN estimates may be only of mature individuals (need to check that).
- Prewhaling population may be a huge under-estimate. A recent study (2003) gives population estimates for fin and humpback whales far greater than those previously calculated for prewhaling populations. Similar studies have not yet been done for Blue Whales. (Roman, J and S.R. Palumbi. 2003. Whales Before Whaling in the North Atlantic. Science. 301: 508-510. PDF archive copy at the Wayback Machine)
Made in OpenOffice Calc (v2.1), exported to SVG by first copying into Draw, and then practically recreated in Inkscape (v0.45). I don't recommend this way of making a graph.
Licensing
Image credit: Peter Halasz. (User:Pengo)
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
|
|
我,此作品的版權所有人,釋出此作品至公共領域。此授權條款在全世界均適用。 這可能在某些國家不合法,如果是的話: 我授予任何人有權利使用此作品於任何用途,除受法律約束外,不受任何限制。
|
If you wish to give attribution, please attribute image to:
- Peter Halasz
- and/or, link to this image page:
//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Whale_population,_Pengo.svg
derivative works
此檔案衍生的作品: